Reviews 51945 Published by

Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

A first look at AMDs Kaveri APU for notebooks
AMD FX-7600P (28nm Kaveri) Review
AMD Kaveri Mobile APU, FX-7600P Performance Preview
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
Computex 2014 Gigabyte Suite Visit
Computex 2014 In Win S-Frame
Dell presents Fluid Cache for SAN
Event Coverage: Computex 2014 Asus Product Announcement and Press Event
How to downgrade to iOS 7 from the iOS 8 beta
Intel Devils Canyon Processors Preview
iRocks M05 Spirit Cocoon Mouse Review
Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset Review
Mionix NAOS 7000 and NAOS 8200 Review
MSI Z97 XPOWER AC Motherboard Review
Plantronics RIG Gaming Headset and Mixer Review
Sentey Phoenix Extreme Gamer Series Keyboard Review
Testing 60+ Intel/AMD/NVIDIA GPUs On Linux With Open-Source Drivers
Thecus N2560 Intelligent NAS Review



A first look at AMDs Kaveri APU for notebooks

A few weeks ago, we attended an AMD press event in San Francisco, where we benchmarked one of the very first prototype notebooks based on Kaveri. We also got briefed on the upcoming mobile Kaveri lineup.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

AMD FX-7600P (28nm Kaveri) Review

It's hard to believe that the best part of a decade has passed since AMD sent tremors through the industry with its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of ATI Technologies. Since that momentous deal in 2006, the much-vaunted 'Fusion' of CPU and GPU has promised to deliver "a new class of accelerated processor that combines more compute capabilities than any processor in the history of computing".

There's no questioning AMD's vision - graphics are now an integral component of nearly every consumer CPU - yet the chip manufacturer's Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) hasn't always managed to leverage its best available technologies.

Flick through the history books and you'll recall that 2011's 'Llano' brought together AMD's K10 CPU and ageing Radeon HD 5000-series graphics alongside a somewhat-inelegant Fusion Controller Hub. 2012 heralded the arrival of 'Trinity' and the amalgamation of much-maligned Piledriver CPU cores with Radeon HD 6000 graphics, while last year's 'Richland' offered little more than increased operating frequencies

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD Kaveri Mobile APU, FX-7600P Performance Preview

AMD has had a tough time competing with Intel on the desktop lately, but when it comes to mobile technology, in the notebook arena, performance, value and power efficiency are measured against a very different yardstick. That's not to say that CPU throughput and IPC isn't important in a notebook, not by a long shot, but multimedia performance in these highly integrated designs can matter much more than desktop designs where discrete graphics engines are easily accommodated.

Back in January of this year, we covered AMD's launch of their Kaveri core-based A8-7600 APU. Targeted for desktops and with integrated AMD GCN graphics on board, Kaveri also had a number of optimizations and enhancements made to its Steamroller CPU cores as well. All told, Kaveri represents a much-needed upgrade to AMD's base APU lineup...

Today we're going to take a look at what AMD's Kaveri architecture can do in a mobile application, a full featured notebook form-factor to be specific, none of that netbook or hybrid clamshell stuff. AMD had us out to sunny San Francisco for a press and analyst day recently, and though we didn't get to take a Kaveri-powered notebook back to the labs for a full-bore benchmark bake-off, we did get to spend some quality time on site with a pre-release whitebook. Let's take a look...

Read full article @ HotHardware

be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3

be quiet! released their new flagship cooler, the Dark Rock Pro 3. Improving upon its predecessor, it is quieter, lighter, and just as stylish. With solid cooling performance and the best noise profile to date for a high-end air cooler, the Dark Rock Pro 3 sets the bar when it comes to performance versus noise.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Computex 2014 Gigabyte Suite Visit

Gigabyte is showing a variety of new products at Computex this year. The majority of them are on the motherboard side with their flagship 9-series motherboards. Of course, Gigabyte is still committed to helping overclockers get the most from their hardware and are doing so with the new line of “orange” SOC motherboards. (Super Overclock) The boards come in two variations, SOC and SOC-Force with the “Force” edition being configured for 4-way SLI and multi graphics performance.

One SOC board that wasn’t on display is the limited edition SOC LN2 edition that basically has no provisions for aircooling and is designed specifically for memory overclocking. We will have more on that motherboard at a later time.

The gaming motherboard lineup has changed considerably with an entire lineup of motherboards to fill every segment of the market. It was explained to us that gaming is now being treated like how the UD (Ultra Durable) motherboards did in the past.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Computex 2014 In Win S-Frame

Traditional computer cases are elaborate modifications of a simple metal box. There are holes for expansion cards, places to put hard drives and generally subscribe to a “form follows function” mentality with the cheapest option making the CEO proud. Does that mean all cases have to follow the same formula? If so, when does a chassis no longer become a computer case and transform into something new?

There is a new case design from chassis maker, In Win showing at Computex 2014 and has stretched the boundaries of what a computer chassis can be. While most of the world will see this case unveiled at Computex we got a special look well before the show started.

Enter the In Win S-Frame.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Dell presents Fluid Cache for SAN

SSDs have made an enormous impact in the world of data storage. This isn't only the case for your average laptop, as flash memory is also being used more and more in the professional world.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Event Coverage: Computex 2014 Asus Product Announcement and Press Event

Asus' CEO led the banner charge in an animated and highly charged press event at the Humble House in the middle of downtown Taipei today where they showed off some amazing new products and we got a first look at a new Zenbook as well as the new Transformer Book T300 Chi you will want to get your hands on as much as we do.

Read full article @ TechwareLabs

How to downgrade to iOS 7 from the iOS 8 beta

Beta software buggier than you can stand? We've got your solution.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Intel Devils Canyon Processors Preview

Intel has just announced their brand new “Devil's Canyon” processors today. These processors are part of the Haswell Refresh which we saw most of the processors come last month. The “Devil’s Canyon” processors are a bit different as they are designed for gamers and overclockers and have new features not found in other Haswell Refresh processors. To that end we present our Devil’s Canyon preview, which should give you all of the information that you need to know about the Devil's Canyon processors.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

iRocks M05 Spirit Cocoon Mouse Review

There are a lot of household names in the PC peripheral industry, especially when it comes to gaming. However, like the games themselves, there are brands that are more dominant in certain parts of the world – it is often only after much time and growth that they start showing up outside their home town. That’s the case with iRocks, one of the most popular gaming peripheral brands in the Far East who are just starting to make their presence known in Western markets. Make no mistake, you are going to be seeing a lot of iRocks products appear over the next few years, so to get you in on the ground floor and give you a taste of what the company offers we have the iRocks Spirit Cocoon mouse to test today.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset Review

Who would have ever thought that Kingston would release a headset? If you only thought the company was about computer memory and data storage, then you might be surprised to have learned that Kingston has released a serious gaming headset called the HyperX Cloud. Kingston acknowledges that the HyperX Cloud was co-developed with Qpad, a major peripheral brand based in Sweden. Read on to see what Kingston and Qpad did with the HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Mionix NAOS 7000 and NAOS 8200 Review

There is always a reason to try harder, to do better, and to go further. No matter what we can think of there is always someone willing to challenge the status quo. Thankfully, that mentality suits tech heads and forward thinkers just fine. While I do hate getting something new and a week later something better is out, I cannot complain that there is always some new great thing just around the corner. Buyer’s remorse is my number one reason for being patient, and that patience has paid off more than a few times.

Conversely, much of my family is very impulsive. For example, the other day my wife and I went to a nursery to buy a few herbs and somehow ended up buying a whole big tree. She is impulsive and bought it without knowing anything about it because the girl at the register said it was on sale. When we got home, I looked it up online and, guess what, it actually cost more than nearly every other comparable tree… Then we planted it without the proper materials and then my dog dug it up and destroyed it. Buyer’s remorse, it is the reason we haven’t even gone out to clean it up yet. Avoiding those terrible feelings is simple, a little research from knowledgeable sources (like you are doing now) and you will be golden.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

MSI Z97 XPOWER AC Motherboard Review

There are so many shows about modifying cars on TV and I know, personally, I have watched many of them. It almost always end with me wishing I had the money to trick out my car. Of course, that would mean I needed a sportier car to hook up anyways. There are certain vehicles that just do not warrant spending the money to do anything custom to them and my vehicle is certainly one of those. Then, of course, you have the cool, old sports cars that you can do a ton of mechanical tuning on, or even the newer ones that have performance computer chips that can be installed.

I believe that the modding and overclocking community for computer equipment could fall into the same category as auto enthusiasts. They have a passion for what they do to get the most performance possible out of a system and break records. Every time a new CPU line is launched, the overclocking community comes out in force to get the highest CPU frequency possible. This means going to the extreme of using LN2 to bring processors down to ridiculously low temperatures and pushing tons of voltage into the system. Similar to souping up cars, you need a good base platform to get the best performance possible, for example, the MSI Z97 XPOWER AC motherboard, which is MSI's top of the line overclocking centric motherboard.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Plantronics RIG Gaming Headset and Mixer Review

Recently Plantronics released the RIG, a multi-platform gaming headset, which looks to offer a wide range of console, PC and mobile functionality in an aggressively priced product. Today we find out how it performs.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

Sentey Phoenix Extreme Gamer Series Keyboard Review

The keyboard ultimately is a joke to my hands and for the $50 asking price, I'd rather burn through five generic builder series keyboards instead. This keyboard has no home on my desk and shouldn't on yours either. I'm happy to be done with the review, simply for the sake of never using it again. Fortunately, the carry bag will prevent me from picking up shattered keys in my driveway later; good thinking Sentey.

Read full article @ OCC

Testing 60+ Intel/AMD/NVIDIA GPUs On Linux With Open-Source Drivers

With Thursday marking the ten year anniversary of launching Phoronix.com and also the six-year anniversary since the public 1.0 debut of the Phoronix Test Suite, there's a lot of interesting articles that I've been working on to celebrate these two milestones. For your viewing pleasure today is easily the largest graphics processor comparison that's ever happened at Phoronix... I've tested over 60 GPUs from the Intel HD Graphics, AMD Radeon, AMD FirePro, and NVIDIA GeForce series to see how their performance is when using the very latest open-source Linux graphics drivers on Ubuntu.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Thecus N2560 Intelligent NAS Review

A little bit ago I reviewed the Thecus N2310 NAS and I liked it a lot but it was considered a budget class product, today I have the Thecus N2560 for review and it’s a NAS with more beefier specs, but still one that retains a lower price point. The N2560 has HDMI and SPDIF outputs so it could be used as a tiny HTPC, you just need a mouse and keyboard and you’re ready to go to access your media. This NAS features an Intel Atom CE5335 CPU which is dual core CPU running at 1.6ghz and the NAS has a hefty 2gb of DDR3 ram. The N2560 is a very capable NAS with plenty of features for the home or small business user, so read on to learn more..

Read full article @ TestFreaks