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Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

A closer look at DirectX 12
Aerocool GT-S White Full Tower Chassis Review
be quiet! Pure Power L8 700 Watt ATX Power Supply Reviewed
Corsair Graphite 760T Review
Corsair Graphite Series 760T Full Tower Computer Case Review
Cougar MX300 Mid-Tower Case Review
Gum Rock Bluetooth Portable Suction Speaker Stand Review
KGUARD Easy Link EL421-4HW212B Surveillance Camera Kit Review
NVIDIA's GeForce Driver On Ubuntu 14.04 Runs The Same As Windows 8.1
Rollei Sunglasses Cam 100 Review



A closer look at DirectX 12

We already covered the basics of DirectX 12 amid the GDC frenzy. Now that we've had time to study our notes from the show, we can delve into a little more detail about the new API's inception, the key ways in which it differs from DirectX 11, and what AMD and Nvidia think about it.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Aerocool GT-S White Full Tower Chassis Review

There is a big market out there for PC products that are unique, that have that certain X-factor that really makes them stand out. This is especially true in the gaming market, where custom rigs and flamboyant chassis design often prove popular with those building their own gaming system, there is often a desire to have something awesome next to your desk that you would want to show off to your friends. Aerocool have already produced some pretty epic chassis designs over the last few years, just look at the X-Predator, the BX500 and the Dead Silence Cube, they obviously know how to make a great product that can stand-out, question is, can the do it again?

The GT-S White Edition has been designed to look like a blend of PC case and sports car, maybe even a little bit of Transformer thrown in their for good measure. There is a black edition of the case available, but Aerocool were kind enough to send us the white edition, of course specifications remain the same between each colour choice.

Read full article @ eTeknix

be quiet! Pure Power L8 700 Watt ATX Power Supply Reviewed

Is it wrong that I’ve come to expect German engineered technology to last? One of my older gamer systems still has a 2007 be quiet! power supply still running strong. I have a couple newer units here that served a couple demo systems flawlessly even coming back after a grounding issue. None of the components were damaged which points to a good unit. And, it didn’t take several hours of dissecting and overkill lab testing to know the unit was built right for the job.

As it stands, I find myself holding yet another be quiet! PSU that promises to keep my upgrades humming. It’s rated at 80Plus Bronze efficiency, and is ready to support your single or CrossFireX and SLI systems. Join me for a quickie, no-technical boredom, close look at the affordable be quiet! Pure Power L8 700 Watt power supply.

Read full article @ Futurelooks

Corsair Graphite 760T Review

The Obsidian 760T is essentially a 750D with a lot more "oh" and "ah". Flashier on the outside, it sports a more elaborate look, a choice of two colors, a huge window, and a bit more lighting. It even comes with a fan controller right out of the box.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Corsair Graphite Series 760T Full Tower Computer Case Review

The latest 760T case from Corsair takes part of the Graphite series and features specially designed side panels which allow a full-view of the system during operation. The inside quite spacious and was built with both air and water cooling in mind. Thanks to the modular drive cages, we have multiple mounting possibilities and the integrated fan controller allows running in both Silent (7V) and Full Speed (12V) modes.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Cougar MX300 Mid-Tower Case Review

It’s March Madness in the US and everyone starts to care about the NCAA because they put $20 on a bracket at work, only to pick 75% of their teams based on their ranking. Maybe I am just bitter because Duke lost to Mercer in the first round and my bracket is about to be deposited into my very special filing cabinet (read: garbage.) College basketball as a whole tends to be more exciting to watch live, even if the skill gap between professionals and students is fairly large. The whole experience of the band, the rivalries, and even seeing the craziness that comes out of the student body during said games. The same can be said about college football.

Currently living in Washington State, the college football scene has been fairly poor as of late. We have two major teams: the University of Washington Huskies and the Washington State University Cougars. What makes me even mention football players is the similarities of a football player and a computer case; both must be rugged, tough, strong, care about keeping cool, functional, and both even care about gear (or cable) management. I am sure you could all listen to me talk about football for hours, but I think there is another Cougar you might be more interested in.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Gum Rock Bluetooth Portable Suction Speaker Stand Review

Up for review today I have a unique little Bluetooth speaker called the Gum Rock. What makes this speaker interesting is that it’s a suction cup and sticks to your device and acts as a stand so you can have your tablet or phone up at a regular viewing angle and have better sound via the speaker. The Gum Rock is one of those thing that in theory sounds good but in reality it isn’t. Read on to learn more..

Read full article @ TestFreaks

KGUARD Easy Link EL421-4HW212B Surveillance Camera Kit Review

After using the KGUARD Easy Link EL421-4HW212B for about a month or so, I will admit it: How have I ever gone without a surveillance camera system? Once you have one installed, you will never go back. I think it was an absolutely genius move for KGUARD to take the products they already had, package it together into a single kit, and sell it to people who are looking to get a whole system running quickly without worrying about what to buy. The four channel digital video recorder is a slim and compact little box that comes with everything you need. With 500GB of capacity and expandable via USB, I really do not have much to complain about when it comes to hardware. Heck, it even comes with a remote control and mouse! As far as the bundled cameras are concerned, again, they are absolutely top notch. They are solid units with very good video capture quality in both day and night. This is not to mention they worked flawlessly for me, even when the temperature outside dropped to -30c. My only complaint is you cannot hide the connectors in the base itself; I think KGUARD expects you to have BNC cables running in your wall or ceiling already, which is not always the case. Anyway, for a first time user of a surveillance camera system, I am pleased to say installation was extremely straightforward. The cameras were easy to mount, and aligning them was as flexible as it can possibly get. The DVR was easy to configure, but the software has tons of room for improvement. There are some software bugs that should be ironed out, and its graphical user interface can use a serious facelift. Either way, whether I am sitting back at the comfort of my own desk, or traveling on the train checking to see how things are going around my house on my phone, the KGUARD Easy Link EL421-4HW212B has it all covered for an extremely competitive price of only $300 at press time. This, my friend, is seriously good hardware for a seriously awesome price.

Read full article @ APH Networks

NVIDIA's GeForce Driver On Ubuntu 14.04 Runs The Same As Windows 8.1

After in the past few days delivering fresh results looking at the Intel Haswell graphics performance between Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and then looking at the AMD Radeon performance between Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 while also testing the open-source Radeon Gallium3D drivers, in this article our attention has turned to the NVIDIA Windows vs. Linux performance with GeForce 600/700 series graphics cards.

Like the earlier Intel and AMD articles, this testing is being done when running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit from the same hardware. The official NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers were loaded on each platform and the same OpenGL games/benchmarks were carried out in a fully-automated and reproducible manner using the Phoronix Test Suite software. The open-source Nouveau graphics driver wasn't tested on the NVIDIA hardware for this article since its support simply isn't ready for the latest GeForce GPUs. The NVIDIA Maxwell support in the open-source Linux graphics driver isn't being merged on the DRM/KMS side until Linux 3.15 and there isn't yet a working Gallium3D driver; just days ago they rendered their first triangle. With older Fermi and Kepler GPUs, there's still a lack of re-clocking support that hinders the open-source driver's performance. For those not familiar with the state of things see my recent NVIDIA GeForce 700 series open vs. closed driver comparison.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Rollei Sunglasses Cam 100 Review

Compact portable cameras (action cameras and spy cameras for most people) have come a long way since their introduction in the consumer market a few years back and so today many athletes consider them to be essential gadgets to record both their work and personal life. There are always some people who may look down on such devices because they simply can't compete with normal handheld models when it comes to image quality and features but action cameras are constantly improving in terms of specifications and on top of that they also get smaller something that allows manufacturers to place them even inside Wearables such as watches, hats, shirts, buttons, belts and glasses. Rollei has been manufacturing action cameras for many years now but it wasn't until last year that they released sunglasses with built-in action cameras and today we will be taking a look at their Sunglasses Cam 100 model.

Read full article @ NikKTech