Reviews 51924 Published by

Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

10-Port 105 Watt USB AC Charging Station for iPhone / iPad / iPod / Galaxy S5 / Note 3
A Beginners Guide to the Linux Command Line
Antec P100 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Blue Microphones Spark Digital Lightning Review
Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD Review
Corsair Vengeance K65 Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Diamond Multimedia WR600NSI Dual Band Wireless Range Extender Review
Intel DC P3700 800GB NVMe SSD Review
Linux Mint 17 Qiana - Take 2: Cinnamon + SSD
MSI GeForce GTX 780 Gaming OC 6 GB Graphics Card Review
MSI Z97 XPower AC Preview
Noctua NH-D15 150mm D-Type Premium Heatsink Review
Patriot Memory 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Viper 3 LP Memory Kit (PVL38G160C9K) Review
Radeon R9 290 vs. Radeon R9 270 CrossFire
Rollei Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 Review
UE BOOM Personalized Edition



10-Port 105 Watt USB AC Charging Station for iPhone / iPad / iPod / Galaxy S5 / Note 3

Nearly a year and a half ago Intel introduced an entirely new way of thinking about Enterprise grade Solid State Drives: their Data Center series. During that first generation outing they focused in on steady-state performance and SATA based solutions, thus the 'S' in the DC S3700 and DC S3500 monikers. Put simply the DC S3xxx series introduced to the world the third generation Intel SSD controller, one which has recently cascaded down to the consumer grade 730 series. Now Intel has turned their attention to a more pressing issue: the underlying architecture that makes up a Solid State Drive. To showcase the fruits of their labor they have launched the DC P3700 series; and today we will be looking at the 800GB version.

The DC P3700 series is meant to highlight a number of advances within Intel’s newly revised SSD environment but it still targets the same data center-based market as the DC S-series. However, instead of utilizing a SATA interface, it uses the PCI-E bus to maximize performance. Therefore, the P3700, P3600 and P3500 aren’t meant as replacements to the slightly older but no less capable S3500 and S3700.

Like the Intel 910 series it obviously replaces, this new Data Center P3700 series will come in various capacities, but each and every one will have the same price per gigabyte ratio. While $3.02 per gigabyte does sound high (especially compared the DC S3700 series) this is a lot less than the 910 commanded when it was launched. For example a 800GB Intel 910 had an MSRP of $3,859 or $4.82 per GB whereas a 800GB DC P3700 will only set companies back $2,414. This is still high, but for the enterprise market it is much more palatable and should help the DC P3700 gain traction. However, lowered price is the smallest of the benefits the DC P3700 brings to the table.

Read full article @ Hardwarecanucks

A Beginners Guide to the Linux Command Line

Do you think of the command line as an antiquated leftover from the past, or an old fashioned way of interacting with a computer? Think again. In Linux, it is the most flexible and powerful way to perform tasks. For example, searching for all .tmp files in a directory (and its sub-directories) and then deleting them can be a multi step process when done via graphical user interface, but is a matter of few seconds when done through the command line.

In this article, we will discuss the basics of the Linux command line including directory navigation, file/directory operations, and more.

Read full article @ Techspot

Antec P100 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

New Antec chassis have been a little bit of a rarity in the last couple of years, so I’m very happy today to see their P100 in my office and ready for testing. Antec was once my number one choice for chassis products when building my own systems, and their Three Hundred is still one of the best low-budget chassis products on the market. The P100 is aimed at the other end of the market, designed with high performance systems in mind and as such it’s a little more expensive at around £70 from most major retailers.

There are lots of great chassis on the market within this price range, so the P100 is going up against some tough competition from all major brands such as Cooler Master, Corsair and NZXT, who all have premium products of similar specifications and price. Of course each brand usually offers something unique, be that the design or a few added bonuses that set them apart. One of the main selling points for Antec has long been their build quality, often favouring thick cut steel panels that are likely to last many years.

The P100′s understated design is packed full of features, including sound dampening materials, plentiful dust filters, water cooling support, room for multiple expansion cards (eg; triple SLI graphics cards), cable management, USB 3.0 and loads of tool free storage bays, so it certainly sounds like a prime pick for a high-end gaming rig.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Blue Microphones Spark Digital Lightning Review

If you want to give your podcasts a professional appearance, you need a good quality microphone. Forget about the tiny hole on your portable smart-whatever device, there’s a world of difference between consumer and professional-grade microphones, and the signal processing circuits that go along with them. Once you have a good microphone and preamp, you then need to digitize the signal using an Analog-to-Digital (A/D) convertor, and get that digital signal into your PC. The Spark Digital from Blue Microphones is an all-in-one solution for high quality digital audio production. All the signal processing is done inside the body of the microphone, and the interface to your computer is through one of several available serial connections. The Spark Digital supports USB 1.1/2.0, the relatively new Lightning connection, or the older Apple 30-pin interface, through the use of separate cables for each connection type. Benchmark Reviews has an audio side to it, but we’ve mostly concentrated on the output side of the equation – headphones and speakers. Some of our readers are content creators though, so it’s high time we paid some attention to the beginning of the signal chain.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD Review

Corsair is using Silicon Motion's new SM2246EN SATA III 6Gbps controller along with 128Gbit Micron L85 20nm ONFI MLC NAND for the Corsair Force LX lineup. This combination gives the Corsair Force LX series a maximum sequential read speed of 560MB/s, which is as good as it gets for SSDs using the SATA III interface. When it comes to write speed the Corsair Force LX 128GB drive has a maximum sequential write speed of 150MB/s and the 256GB model is rated at up to 300MB/s. Read on to see how the Corsair Force LX 256GB drive does when we put it to the test!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Corsair Vengeance K65 Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Over the last few years we have seen a lot of excellent gaming keyboards being released from a number of companies. Corsair entered the market a while ago and today have a great range of gaming keyboards with a varied number of mechanical switches. Some time ago we tested the Vengeance K70 keyboard and found it to be a very good gaming keyboard. Today we are testing the “little brother”, the Corsair Vengeance K65 keyboard. While it keeps a lot of the same design features as the K70 it is a keyboard that is much more compact and intended to the LAN-gamer who does not want to lug a full size keyboard around or the home user who just values space and want a compact keyboard.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Diamond Multimedia WR600NSI Dual Band Wireless Range Extender Review

We’ve come to take wireless technology for granted. We just assume that if we go to another room in our homes, we will still have no trouble latching onto our home Wi-Fi network to surf the web and watch YouTube videos. Unfortunately, many homes and offices have their fair share of “dead spots” and upgrading your router sometimes isn’t enough. Sometimes, you want to invest in something like the Diamond Multimedia WR600NSI wireless range extender, an all-in-one unit that plugs into any wall outlet and bathes you in that wonderful Wi-Fi once more.

Read full article @ MEGATech

Intel DC P3700 800GB NVMe SSD Review

Nearly a year and a half ago Intel introduced an entirely new way of thinking about Enterprise grade Solid State Drives: their Data Center series. During that first generation outing they focused in on steady-state performance and SATA based solutions, thus the 'S' in the DC S3700 and DC S3500 monikers. Put simply the DC S3xxx series introduced to the world the third generation Intel SSD controller, one which has recently cascaded down to the consumer grade 730 series. Now Intel has turned their attention to a more pressing issue: the underlying architecture that makes up a Solid State Drive. To showcase the fruits of their labor they have launched the DC P3700 series; and today we will be looking at the 800GB version.

The DC P3700 series is meant to highlight a number of advances within Intel’s newly revised SSD environment but it still targets the same data center-based market as the DC S-series. However, instead of utilizing a SATA interface, it uses the PCI-E bus to maximize performance. Therefore, the P3700, P3600 and P3500 aren’t meant as replacements to the slightly older but no less capable S3500 and S3700.

Like the Intel 910 series it obviously replaces, this new Data Center P3700 series will come in various capacities, but each and every one will have the same price per gigabyte ratio. While $3.02 per gigabyte does sound high (especially compared the DC S3700 series) this is a lot less than the 910 commanded when it was launched. For example a 800GB Intel 910 had an MSRP of $3,859 or $4.82 per GB whereas a 800GB DC P3700 will only set companies back $2,414. This is still high, but for the enterprise market it is much more palatable and should help the DC P3700 gain traction. However, lowered price is the smallest of the benefits the DC P3700 brings to the table.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Linux Mint 17 Qiana - Take 2: Cinnamon + SSD

You did not expect it that soon, did you. But here's a second review of Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64-bit edition with Cinnamon desktop environment, covering live session, installation in a quad-boot configuration on a laptop with Intel graphics and SSD and post-install use, including look & feel, hardware compatibility, resource usage, system and network speed improvements, stability, suspend & resume, printing, battery life, small visual glitches, and more. Enjoy again.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

MSI GeForce GTX 780 Gaming OC 6 GB Graphics Card Review

In this review we test the GeForce GTX 780 Gaming OC 6 GB graphics card from MSI, the OC edition specifically. The customized product is equipped with a massive cooler that can be air-cooled, this unit comes with a whopping 6 GB graphics memory (rather handy with Watch Dogs we admit) and a very hip looking cooler. That cooler is of course the latest iteration of the TwiNFrozr cooler and it will keep this product chilled down towards roughly 75 Degrees C under full stress, whilst remaining incredibly silent.

Surprisingly, the card packs a GTX 780 GPU, not a 780 Ti. So the more 'regular' GeForce GTX 780 is being used. This means it is based on the GK110 GPU and has a whopping 7.1 Billion transistors. That makes it a nice chunk faster opposed to the GeForce GTX 680 GPU.

So the MSI GeForce GTX 780 Gaming OC (6GB) has your typical standards like 2304 CUDA Cores. The GTX 780 is based on the GK110 GPU with the distinctions that the Titan has a GK110-300 GPU and the GeForce GTX 780 a GK110-400 GPU. Same stuff, yet with some things disabled. 2304 Shader Processing Units, 192 TMUs and 32 ROPs on a 384-bit memory interface of fast GDDR5. The card comes with dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs and will be available in two versions - one with stock clocks and one with an overclocked GPU (as tested today). The card is factory overclocked towards 954 MHz (core) with a 1006 MHz boost. The memory runs at 6008 MHz (effective data-rate), yet has plenty of room to be tweaked, in fact we'll show you how to run this puppy at over 7 GHz on the memory, and sure, we'll give it a nice GPU overclock as well. Why is this product being introduced you might wonder? Well, lately less than a handful of games really like more than 3GB of graphics memory, hence a 6GB model is something that a lot of people will like very much. Take Watch Dogs for example, flick on an exotic anti-aliasing mode with a decent resolution and boom, with high and ultra quality settings you can easily pass 3GB graphics memory.

Read full article @ Guru3D

MSI Z97 XPower AC Preview

The Z97 XPower is MSI's flagship offer when it comes to Z97 Express based motherboards. This board not only comes with a massive 32 phase digital power design but also lots of additional overclocking and gaming related features. Other than that MSI provided this board with their unique and good looking color scheme, where basically almost anything is black apart from a few yellow spots.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Noctua NH-D15 150mm D-Type Premium Heatsink Review

When it comes to cooling a CPU there are a variety of different ways you can go and each cater to how you plan to use your computer. For those looking to get the best thermal performance a self contained watercooler or large tower heatsink might be the best option, especially when overclocking. OEM replacement coolers are extremely popular in the DIY market and often sacrifice cooling performance for cost and quality of components. While these styles can often be found as hybrids of each other you can never replicate a third popular style, the silent cooler. Silent coolers are more than high performance heatsinks with slow moving fans but specifically engineered to get the best thermal performance when overall airflow may be at a premium.

In this review we will be looking at the Noctua NH-D15 D-Type heatsink. Around four years ago Noctua released the NH-D14 a dual tower dual fan cooler. It was extremely popular with cooling enthusiasts both for its sound performance and superior heat capacity. The NH-D15 is an upgrade of that classic design with larger fans, improved compatibility and the promise of better performance.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Patriot Memory 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Viper 3 LP Memory Kit (PVL38G160C9K) Review

The Patriot Viper 3 (PVL38G160C9K) 8GB memory kit features a low-height heat spreader for maximum compatibility with beefy CPU coolers and can be overclocked quite a bit from the stock speed if we work a bit with the latencies along with the voltages.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Radeon R9 290 vs. Radeon R9 270 CrossFire

Comparisons of two mid-range (roughly) graphics cards with one high-end VGA are almost always good for some really interesting results. Today we're having a look at what two AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics cards can do against one Radeon R9 290. If you keep in mind, that the R9 290 is more expensive than two R9 270 cards then things could be quite interesting.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Rollei Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 Review

As you will have undoubtedly noticed for the past year or so we've focused quite a bit in bringing all reviews of many of the latest action camera and car dash camera models to hit the market. My personal opinion is that car dash cameras are much more useful than regular action cameras since they can be of assistance in case of an accident helping you save both time and money (not to mention that in some countries your care insurance fees are reduced if you happen to use one such model). However since most action cameras can also be used as dash cameras just by purchasing a dash mount there isn't that much distance between the two. However although most models we've tested to date combined very good image and audio quality with several interesting features in the end none of them was compact enough to be also be carried around as a camcorder. Rollei obviously thought of that issue and released the Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 a tiny 720p capable camera.

Rollei’s history goes back to the year 1920 and a workshop in Braunschweig. With the launch of the twin-lens Rolleiflex, a landmark film camera, Rollei quickly established a global reputation for precision engineering. A cult brand, it gave rise to its very own photo style in the 1950s and ’60s. In 2007 Hamburg-based RCP-Technik GmbH acquired the European rights to Rollei and since then has marketed Rollei consumer products with growing success. Rollei products are currently sold in more than 20 European countries. The Rollei product range features digital cameras, camcorders, action camcorders, digital picture frames, slide scanners, professional tripods as well as camera and iPhone accessories. Excellent service is assured for all Rollei products with the all-inclusive package for 24 months. If a defect is found within this time, the product can be returned and a new one received within eight days.

720p HD resolution (@30fps) may not be something special nowadays but thanks to both its tiny size, extremely low weight and WiFi capability not only can the Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 be used as a wearable camera but it can also be used for surveillance purposes without attracting attention. Unfortunately a tiny size means that the lens can't be as good as the ones used in a good action camera and the same goes for the capacity of the battery but lucky for us Rollei was able to squeeze a 700mAh rechargeable lithium-ion one that can keep it going for roughly 100 minutes. That's not all however and so Rollei has even made it possible for the end user to also use the Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 as a computer web-cam and as a two-way intercom thanks to the integrated speaker and microphone. Other not so "impressive" features include 100 degree wide angle lens, automatic exposure correction, shutter speed of 1/8000 ~ 1/30 seconds, real-time clock function and a minimum light level of 10 lux for video recording. How do all these translate in real life performance however is up to us find out once again.

Read full article @ NikKTech

UE BOOM Personalized Edition

The UE BOOM was one of the first bluetooth speakers that wowed us. Today, we take a look at the newest revision of the BOOM. It features much improved firmware, allows you to customize its start-up sound, and comes with a bigger bundle.

Read full article @ techPowerUp