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Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

20 of the Worst PC Setups – December 2014
AMD FX-8320E 95W (32nm Vishera) Review
Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review: The Last of Its Kind
Asus Chromebook C300 Review
ASUS ROG GTX 980 Matrix Platinum – Pushing Maxwell to the Limit
Gaming PC - January 2015
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card Review
Hands On With NVIDIA Tegra X1 With Benchmarks and Video
Installing The AMD Catalyst Driver On Fedora 21
Kingston HyperX Predator Predator DDR4 3000MHz – Putting Pedal to the Metal on X99
Lamptron CM615 Touchscreen Fan Controller Review
Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 Pro With Built-In Projector Review
Noctua NH-D15
Nokia DC-50 Portable Wireless Charging Plate Review
NVIDIA Unveils Tegra X1 Powered Drive CX and PX Intelligent Automotive Computing Platforms
Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL Chassis Review
Raijintek Triton AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review
SilverStone Ultra-Quiet 140mm and 120mm PWM Fans Review
Synology DiskStation DS415+ Review
WD Shows Off Fastest 4TB Hybrid SATAe Drive At Storage Visions 2015
Western Digital My Passport Wireless 2TB Review
Yezz Billy 5S LTE – Hands on and impressions of the forthcoming Windows Phone



20 of the Worst PC Setups – December 2014

I’m sure at some point you had a bad PC setup. Maybe moving into a new place, waiting for a new desk to arrive or you just ran out of room. I can remember my horrible PC setups from when I was living at the dorms in college. If you have ever ventured over to the Shitty Battlestations sub-reddit you will find a lot of horrible PC setups. We will are going to pick 20 each month and feature them as 20 of the Worst PC setups for that month. Here are some of the bad ones from December!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

AMD FX-8320E 95W (32nm Vishera) Review

A full eight-core chip for just £110. There are no major updates for AMD’s FX processor series on the horizon, meaning the shelf-life of dated 32nm Piledriver-based silicon is set to be prolonged even further. For many enthusiasts the AM3+ socket has arguably run its course, but AMD believes there is still plenty of longevity in the old beast, and it may well be right.

Since the first iteration of Piledriver was released in October 2012, the FX-8350, AMD’s FX processor series has relied on product refreshes and large price cuts to stay competitive against increasingly powerful offerings from Intel. We’ve witnessed the release of FX-9000 branded parts with out of the box Turbo frequencies as high as 5GHz, but also new FX-8000 E-series parts tailored for more energy-efficient operation within 95W thermal envelopes.

Read full article @ Hexus

Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review: The Last of Its Kind

It is an odd way to start the new year with a review of what many enthusiasts consider old technology (990FX mainboard) but the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX
Killer is an interesting and unique in that it incorporates many modern comforts not found on other 990FX mainboards. Plus, with the release of lower
power 95W FX processors a few months ago, …

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Asus Chromebook C300 Review

After all the fanfare around Chromebooks when they were first launched in 2011, the concept seems to have dropped off the radar in the last year. Samsung, once a Chromebook champion, has stopped selling them in Europe, and indeed pulled out of the entire notebook market as well. But there are still new Chromebooks being released, and the standard is steadily improving. Asus’s latest offering is the C300. It’s a 13in Chromebook designed to be your go-everywhere daily companion.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASUS ROG GTX 980 Matrix Platinum – Pushing Maxwell to the Limit

I love looking at new cards and most are minor upgrades to the reference model while others are a bit better with custom PCBs and some minor trickery to help performance. Some are simply balls to the walls complete ground up builds made specifically for pushing the limits, and today that’s what we have. ASUS always aims to impress with its top model ROG based overclocking cards and the last few Matrix cards we have seen have been very impressive, so needless to say when I had the GTX 980 variant show up I was elated and very anxious to get to running it.

One thing up front is that while this card comes with an air cooler this card and cards like it are designed to really push the limit of a specific platform or GPU model so the real target would be LN2 testing but as that group is extremely niche we have to look at it under real world application and expectations. Our testing and analysis will be on its stock air cooling and if we can round up a waterblock we will be sure to follow up with another performance analysis with that as well.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Gaming PC - January 2015

This computer system is specifically geared towards gaming. That means a PC with a high-end graphics card and a processor that is fast enough to support the GPU.

The rest of the configuration needs to be balanced as well. Since many gamers also enjoy overclocking their PC to improve performance, it is also important to choose a motherboard and memory that is suitable for this. Keep in mind that you will pay extra for that overclocking potential.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card Review

Happy New Year! When it comes to being a position of great importance, it is easy to think being the first in command is the most desirable job. However, I would like to propose today that, while being at the top does have its perks and benefits, being second-to-one may actually be better than being second-to-none in many ways. For example, in US politics, it seems to me that no matter who the President is, or what he does, at least half the country will disagree with him; and in this endless cycle of vote-and-regret, the President gets blamed for pretty much everything that goes wrong. Recession? Blame Obama. ISIS? Blame Obama. Ebola? Blame Obama. Hurricanes? Blame Obama. The list goes on. While I am not here to debate the merits of President Obama, or are even remotely interested in debating US politics (I am not even American), the point I am trying to get across today is, the President gets blamed for everything, whether it is within his control or not, while nobody really cares about the Vice President. As such, I personally think it is much better to be the Vice President than the President. You still get more power than you would ever need, important enough to make a difference, yet you can slip under the blame-radar of most people if anything goes wrong. Simply put, the price for being the President of the United States is exponentially higher than being the Vice President. Similarly, the price you pay to buy the fastest video card in the market is usually quite high. But if you are willing to sacrifice 10-15% of the performance and go for the second best, how much money can you save? For about 40% less cash than the GTX 980, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 4GB promises to deliver near-flagship performance at a fraction of the cost. Combined with Gigabyte's factory overclock, WindForce 3X cooler, and Ultra Durable components, have we found a good Vice President of video cards today? We have one in for nomination here at APH Networks.

Read full article @ APH Networks

Hands On With NVIDIA Tegra X1 With Benchmarks and Video

For the last few years, NVIDIA has used the lead-up to the Consumer Electronics Show to announce new Tegra-related products and technologies. This year is no different. Earlier today, we got together with representatives from NVIDIA to talk about the company’s upcoming Tegra X1 system on a chip (SoC) and see the reference platform in action, running a variety of benchmarks and demos.

At last year’s CES, NVIDIA announced the Tegra K1 featuring a Kepler-derived GPU, which has since found its way into the excellent SHIELD Tablet, Google’s Project Tango device, and the Nexus 9. The Tegra K1 proved to be a strong performer, in both its quad-core 32-bit and dual-core 64-bit configurations, and the 192-core Kepler-class GPU was a clear leader in the space. The Tegra X1, however, is a significant departure from the K1 in that it features a Maxwell-derived GPU and eight CPU cores; four ARM A57 cores and four A53s in a big.LITTLE configuration...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Installing The AMD Catalyst Driver On Fedora 21

Installing the AMD Catalyst (fglrx) driver on the latest Fedora release can sometimes be a challenge due to Fedora catering towards the open-source graphics drivers...

Read full article @ Phoronix

Kingston HyperX Predator Predator DDR4 3000MHz – Putting Pedal to the Metal on X99

Kingston has probably one of the longest standing and most diverse histories in memory with its KVR line being a staple in many business and OEM systems along with its performance “HyperX” Line branching off in many areas for OC and gaming.

Today we are looking at the newest in the Predator series the DDR4 variant coming in at a clock speed of PC4-24000 or DDR4-3000MHz. We know that this is still only scratching the surface of what DDR4 will eventually do but it still is 867MHz above JEDEC give or take depending on clock modulation. Now do keep in mind that DDR4 is still a pretty new thing for the consumer market and with X99 the DDR4 push was actually pretty rocks as some vendors struggled to even have DIMMS available at launch. When I first spoke to Kingston they were still finalizing their DIMMS and even after I got this initial set they reflashed them for me as originally they were spec’d at 1.5V and once tuning was confirmed they were able to throttle it back to 1.35

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Lamptron CM615 Touchscreen Fan Controller Review

We do a lot to make your small rotating noisemakers in the PC case more silent.
In addition to sound insulation and decoupling, there are more ways to achieve this.
Or just install a fan controller to pulse the fan voltage or reduce the fan voltage.
The air flow is then usually still enough for a good cooling, but the volume of the fan is massively reduced.
The offer on the PC market is manageable, and controller starts with simple 3 step types, followed by poti controllers with LCD, LED, or VFD Display to the top fan controllers with touch screen and remote control via Internet.
Today, we test such a fan controller - the Lamptron CM615 6-channel fan controller with touch screen display.

Read full article @ OcInside.de

Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 Pro With Built-In Projector Review

Most Android tablets are cookie-cutter slates. The major differences from one model to the next are generally a combination of software features and variations in key hardware specifications such as the processor, screen resolution, or storage capacity. Over the years, we’ve also seen some spins on the traditional Android slate tablet whereby manufacturers have incorporated keyboards, docking stations, additional batteries, etc.

Today, we’re taking a look at a new Android tablet from Lenovo that incorporates some new ideas we’re not accustomed to seeing on tablets. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro features a larger than normal 13-inch screen along with a built-in tablet-projector...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Noctua NH-D15

While water cooling has been especially popular over the last few years, there are still a lot of people who would prefer to not deal with the additional risks and installation complication. On top of that, when you are looking for really high end cooling it actually costs a lot more than you think to go water cooling. This is where companies like Noctua come in. You see cheap water cooling doesn’t always compete with air cooling, especially when it comes to noise. So Noctua continues to innovate in the air cooling market. Their top dog is called the NH-D15. Well they sent one out a while back and being the slackers that we are it ended up pushed back. Today I will finally have the chance to check out their biggest and best to see just how it compares to the completion both on the air and water cooling sides.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Nokia DC-50 Portable Wireless Charging Plate Review

One of the primary attributes that I look for when shopping for just about any device is versatility. If I am spending my hard-earned cash, I want to get the most bang for the buck. So I am always happy to find a product that can fill multiple needs. Enter the Nokia DC-50 portable wireless charging plate.

Read full article @ Windows Central

NVIDIA Unveils Tegra X1 Powered Drive CX and PX Intelligent Automotive Computing Platforms

Today NVIDIA unveiled its upcoming Tegra X1 system on a chip (SoC) and a few automotive computer systems leveraging the X1. The Tegra X1 is a significant departure from the previous-gen Tegra K1 in that it features a 256-core Maxwell-derived GPU and eight CPU cores; four ARM A57 cores and four A53s in a big.LITTLE configuration. NVIDIA claims the Tegra X1 offers up to 2x the performance of the Tegra K1 in a similar power envelope, thanks to improved efficiency in the CPU and GPU cores and the chip’s more advanced 20nm manufacturing process. In addition to the Tegra X1 itself, NVIDIA also announced some new automotive computing platforms, the NVIDIA Drive CX Digital Cockpit Computer and Drive PX Auto-Pilot Platform, along with the Drive Studio software suite for developing in-car infotainment and autonomous driving systems based on Tegra X1...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL Chassis Review

Phanteks has taken a bold step with its new Enthoo Mini XL case as we are seeing the introduction of a new form factor called Super Micro ATX. The idea is that you can install two motherboards inside the case along with their power supplies, processors and all the other hardware you need to run two PCs simultaneously inside a common chassis.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Raijintek Triton AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Today we are going to take a look at an interesting water cooling product – the Raijintek Triton, an ‘all in one’ CPU cooler. The Triton has been designed to be user upgradable … in fact Raijintek take things a step further and actively encourage users (who have the necessary skills) to customise their loop.

Read full article @ KitGuru

SilverStone Ultra-Quiet 140mm and 120mm PWM Fans Review

The quest for silence is an ultimate goal among the elite of computer enthusiasts. Some people take this quest to the extreme in having fanless computers, but even the slightest airflow can be inaudible while making a huge difference in temperatures. That's exactly where SilverStone comes into the picture with their new series of Ultra-Quiet PWM fans. Rather than trying to break airflow records, these tools are designed to operate at a such a low level that you won't be able to tell if they're spinning unless you look at them.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

Synology DiskStation DS415+ Review

Reports of security breaches and data theft have become quite frequent in recent weeks. With the well-publicized Sony attack the importance of securing data whether for business or personal use has become more apparent. One of the best ways to guard this data is to house it on one’s own server with various protections in place.

Synology is a company known for their highly regarded and popular NAS devices. Their recent release of the DS415+ an upgrade from their previous four-bay DS412+ was designed with security in mind as it features an AES-NI hardware encryption engine.

Read full article @ Technogog

WD Shows Off Fastest 4TB Hybrid SATAe Drive At Storage Visions 2015

The Storage Visions Conference has kicked off and Legit Reviews is at the show to check out the latest news when it comes to storage technology. One of our first stops was the SATA-IO booth where WD is going to be demonstrating the world's fastest 4 TB hybrid drive. WD’s prototype drive is basically a traditional 3.5-inch 4TB desktop hard drive that uses the SATA Express (SATAe) PCI-e interface along with up to a 128GB of NAND Flash memory acting an SSD of sorts for caching purposes to help bolster the drives performance. Read on to see how a pair of these drives perform in RAID!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Western Digital My Passport Wireless 2TB Review

Western Digital introduced the My Passport Wireless 2TB drive in response to a perceived increase in demand for high capacity wireless storage devices. Seagate with its 2TB Wireless Plus drive and LaCie (a Seagate subsidiary) with the Fuel 2TB launched on the market months earlier.Of the three, Western Digital is the most expensive, selling for just under £196 (around $300, AU$375) on Amazon compared to £150 (around $230, AU$285) for the Seagate model and a smidgen over £164 (around $255, AU$310) for the LaCie drive.To put these figures in context, a bog standard 2TB USB 3.0 hard disk drive like the Toshiba Canvio Basics costs less than £67 (around $105, AU$130), about a third of the price of the My Passport Wireless. How to justify such a massive price difference? Well, wireless hard disk drives are not just storage devices.

Read full article @ Techradar

Yezz Billy 5S LTE – Hands on and impressions of the forthcoming Windows Phone

Today in Las Vegas budget phone maker Yezz announced their latest Windows Phone dubbed the Billy 5S LTE. The latest in the Billy series brings a lot to the table for those looking to maximize their bang for the buck, and we got to see one in person tonight. Yezz CEO Luis Sosa was on hand to give a quick tour of the Billy 5S, which you can see in our video!

Read full article @ Windows Central