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Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

15 Common Symbols You Can Insert With the Alt Key
AMD R9 Nano 4GB (HBMv1) CrossFire Review
Cooltek Jonsbo UMX2 Mini-ITX Case Review
ECS LIVA X2 Mini PC Review
EVGA Z170 Classified Motherboard Review
Fallout 4: PC graphics Performance Review
Flyzone Sensei FS RTF Trainer RC Plane Review
ID-Cooling T60-SFX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis Review
Inateck FD2008C USB Type-C External Drive Enclosure Review
IOGear IKON Gaming Keyboard Review
Motorola Droid Turbo 2 And Droid Maxx 2 Review: Shatterproof And Value Android
Nixeus NX-VUE24A 144Hz FreeSync Monitor
NVIDIA JTX1: Finally An Exciting 64-bit ARM Board!
QNAP TS-451+ & QTS 4.2
QNAP TS-453 Pro Review
Razer Mamba Review



15 Common Symbols You Can Insert With the Alt Key

There are many symbols that can’t be typed on a standard keyboard, but what you might not know is that thousands of symbols can be typed with just the Alt key and the Number Pad.

Next time you need to insert uncommon symbols (e.g. copyright, trademark, or square root), try this. Make sure Num Lock is turned on, hold down the Alt key, type one of the following number combinations, then let go of Alt. For international keyboards, you must use the Left Alt key.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

AMD R9 Nano 4GB (HBMv1) CrossFire Review

Here at eTeknix, we strive to give the consumer the best possible advice in every aspect of technology. Today is no different and we are excited to bring you the CrossFireX review of the highly anticipated R9 Nano 4GB graphics cards.

The R9 Nano is the third release in the Fiji GPU core range and the third official graphics card to utilise High Bandwidth Memory (HBMv1). We’ve been impressed with the performance of the Fiji range so far with the fully unlocked R9 Fury X providing a good alternative to the NVIDIA GTX 980Ti, the R9 Fury providing a good step up from the R9 390X and the GTX 980 and the R9 Nano being the perfect option for small form factor builds. A single R9 Nano provides the perfect balance of performance, power consumption and mobility, but will combining two still be a worthwhile option?

When we test in CrossFireX, we aim to use two identical graphics card to ensure that everything is as similar as possible. When using the same cards, you can almost guarantee the same cooling capabilities, power draw, core clock and other variables. This then gives us the best possible outcome for maximum performance as the computer does not need to compensate for any differences.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Cooltek Jonsbo UMX2 Mini-ITX Case Review

With more and more people turning towards small PCs to cover their needs it's no wonder that the popularity of mini-ITX and mini-ATX compatible cases has been on the rise all over the world for quite some time now. What i never understood completely was the reason as to why PC case manufacturers didn't design small ATX compatible PC cases for people who want the extra features offered by such mainboards without having to worry about having a midi or full tower on their desks. HTPC cases have pretty much offered the solution to that for a long time now but judging by their current popularity it's safe to assume that the majority of consumers still prefers the "traditional" tower design when out to get a new case. Cooltek is one of the very few manufacturers out in the market currently who have managed to fit a full sized ATX mainboard inside small towers which up until today people thought were only compatible with mITX and mATX models. One such tower design PC case is the aluminum UMX2 by their Jonsbo brand which is here with us today.

Cooltek offers you high-quality PC cases and accessories at an outstanding price-performance-ratio. Our products meet internationally recognized quality standards and are distinguished by their durability and exceptional value for money. Our main area of expertise are a broad variety of PC cases, ranging from small HTPC-formats- like the award winning Coolcube family - to full-fledged Midi-Tower chassis that offer outstanding features for small costs. Besides our line of PC cases, we offer you selected products from the areas of noise reduction, PC modding, cooling and high-end power supplies. By choosing Cooltek products you opt for innovative technology and leading designs.

For the UMX2 Cooltek has followed a strange yet effective path (according to them that's what's Jonsbo is all about). They've used a 1.8mm thick steel interior cage and dressed it with 2.5mm thick anodized aluminum (side plates are 2mm thick) so although you're getting a small, nice looking and light case it's actually very sturdy. Of course although the UMX2 can accommodate up to full ATX sized mainboards due to its small size Cooltek had to make certain compromises so the last PCI slot can only be used with single slot cards and unfortunately there's no room for forward fans. Still the UMX2 comes ready with three preinstalled fans (two 120mm ones at its base and one 140mm at the top), has room for two extra 80mm fans at the rear and can be outfitted with a total of 5 drives (3x3.5"/2x2.5"/slim 5.25"), up to 150mm tall CPU coolers and 280mm long graphics cards.

Read full article @ NikKTech

ECS LIVA X2 Mini PC Review

When I looked at the ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit about a year ago, my overall experience was very positive. The device is compact, lightweight, very well built, and offered incredible value for its price. The tiny barebone system was fun to put together; and even though I did not beat the "60 seconds" ECS challenge, I came pretty close. The ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit has been running Windows 8.1 since, before being upgraded to Windows 10 recently. The unit became a staple in our living room, permanently hooked to the HDTV and used daily for streaming online content and local media playback, with the occasional web browsing. Intel's Bay Trail-M SoC was up to the task and performed nicely overall.

Today I will be taking a look at the next generation of mini PCs from ECS, the LIVA X2 (read X Squared). The unit is built around the Intel Braswell SoC and comes with a 14nm Intel Celeron N3050 CPU. The RAM and storage configurations available are 2GB of DDR3L RAM and 32GB eMMC storage, or 4GB of DDR3L RAM and 64GB eMMC storage. With the release of the LIVA X2, ECS not only improved the hardware but also opted for different design choices. This should make the LIVA X2 more user-friendly and boost the performance, while looking sleek in any living room setting.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

EVGA Z170 Classified Motherboard Review

Skylake processors offer great per-core performance and overclocking capability, but only have sixteen PCIe 3.0 lanes for graphics. EVGA has a solution, but is it worth the added cost?

Economics dictates why Skylake only has sixteen PCIe 3.0 lanes, as the same LGA 1151 socket is meant to serve everything from low-end office to mainstream gaming machines. If you want more than that, Intel thinks you should upgrade to a bigger processor on a more expensive board. The problem is, Intel's big processors are always clocked slower using previous-generation technology. Using client systems to work the bugs out of a core before transitioning its tech to servers might make sense to an IT manager, but performance enthusiast don’t like this CPU/GPU performance dichotomy. While some resort to extreme cooling to make up for the per-core performance deficit with added clock-speed, the new cores usually clock even higher on even less cooling for far less money.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Fallout 4: PC graphics Performance Review

We take a look at Fallout 4 in relation towards PC gaming graphics card performance. Many graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked. We have a look at DX11 performance with the newest graphics cards and technologies. We'll also look at frametimes, graphics memory and a thing or two more.

After something happend in the vault (I won't share spoilers here) and as survivor of Vault 111, you enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. Every second is a fight for survival, and every choice is yours. Only you can rebuild and determine the fate of the Wasteland. First or third person combat. Combat slow motion, using VATS (Vault Assisted Targeting system). Cinematic combat carnage. Highly advanced crafting system. Collect upgrade and build thousands of items. Build and manage entire settlements. For this article we take out a dozen or so graphics cards and benchmark the game. We have a look at DX11 performance with the newest graphics cards and technologies. This article will cover benchmarks in the sense of average framerates, we'll look at all popular resolutions scaling from Full HD (1920x1080/1200), WHQD (2560x1440 and of course that big-whopper of a resolution Ultra HD. UHDTV (2160p) is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.29 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as 1920x1080 (2.07 megapixels).

Read full article @ Guru3D

Flyzone Sensei FS RTF Trainer RC Plane Review

The Sensei FS RTF electric trainer from Flyzone Planes allows even the most novice pilots take to the skies, easing their fears and bringing great excitement to their very first successful flight! The Sensei features FS, or Flight Stabilization, which makes the aircraft stabilizes automatically for beginner pilots learning to fly while the powerful brushless motors deliver the power that’s needed for aerobatic moves that you’ll soon be comfortable performing.

The Sensei FS trainer also features a very cool drop-door that allows you to remotely drop bombs, streamers, or even candy for folks to catch below, all with a flip of the switch on your included Tactic 6-Channel 2.4GHz SLT radio.

We’re going to take a closer look at the Sensei FS and walk you through the minimal assembly process, flight controls, and of course flight testing videos that shows how well the FlyZone Sensei FS performs both for experienced pilots and beginners a like.

Read full article @ Geek Inspector

ID-Cooling T60-SFX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis Review

ID-cooling are a relatively new player in the PC component market, but so far, we’ve seen some great cooling products from them and I’m eager to see how their first ever chassis stacks up against the competition. With a competitive price and promising high-end build quality courtesy of its pure aluminium casing, the T60-SFX sound like an attractive product for those looking at a mini-ITX gaming system.

Space is limited inside this chassis, but with the rise in popularity of mini-ITX form factor graphics cards, SFX power supplies and more, fitting a competent gaming system into a chassis of this size isn’t as tricky as it used to be. You’ll find there’s just enough room for a few hard drives, a reasonably sized graphics card and, of course, a mini-ITX motherboard and SFX PSU.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Inateck FD2008C USB Type-C External Drive Enclosure Review

Do you have a fancy new USB Type-C port, but no devices to use on it? The folks over at Inateck have released an USB Type-C 2.5-inch external drive enclosure that features USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) support! The enclosure runs $24.99 shipped, can be used on any USB-C port and offers data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. Read on to see how it performs!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

IOGear IKON Gaming Keyboard Review

There were a few issues that I think if addressed would make this keyboard stand out much more in the gaming market. The inclusion of a USB hub would be a tremendous plus that a lot of gamers, including myself, look for. Having those ports available and closer makes jumping into a game or using a peripheral so much easier. Also having some sort of raised key to make the WASD stand out during gaming without having to look at the keyboard will make or break your in-game score. Personally I would also like to have seen the backlash key in the normal position for easier memory use, but that's very minor.

Read full article @ OCC

Motorola Droid Turbo 2 And Droid Maxx 2 Review: Shatterproof And Value Android

Not long ago, we kicked the tires on Motorola’s well-received Moto X Pure Edition. The smartphone impressed us with its Quad HD display and overall build quality, as well as its $399 price tag, which places it more reasonably below the lofty prices of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple iPhone 6S lines.

Today, we’re taking a look at two new smartphones from the Lenovo-owned Motorola - the Droid Turbo 2 and the Droid Maxx 2, which bring their own unique value proposition.

Whereas the Moto X Pure Edition isn’t carrier-specific, the Turbo 2 and Maxx 2 are part of the Verizon Droid line. The Turbo 2, which starts at $624, has higher-end hardware than the Maxx 2 and features Motorola’s new ShatterShield display, which is bound to appeal to anyone who has lost a phone to clumsiness. However, with a starting retail price of $384, the Maxx 2 is significantly cheaper, so if it can handle mainstream tasks and games adequately, there are plenty of customers who will be willing to overlook the lack of a shatterproof screen...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Nixeus NX-VUE24A 144Hz FreeSync Monitor

There are dozens of monitor supporting AMD's FreeSync technology but the Nixeus NX-VUE24A seems to be unique. It offers awesome performance, great image quality and a truly low price.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

NVIDIA JTX1: Finally An Exciting 64-bit ARM Board!

NVIDIA's embargo has just expired on the Jetson TX1: a 64-bit ARM development board that's worth getting excited about for Linux enthusiasts, those wishing to build their own ARM-powered devices, or just wanting a powerful ARM Linux desktop. The Jetson TX1 powered by the Tegra X1 is shaping up to be a splendid device; NVIDIA is even comparing the performance of the JTX1 to that of an Intel Core i7 6700K in certain tasks.

While there's been several 64-bit ARM development boards available for a while, not many have got me really excited... The low-cost ones offer small amounts of RAM (1GB!) or onboard storage and others like the 96Boards HiKey use just Cortex-A53 cores. There are higher-end ones like the APM X-C1, but that will set you back $1495 USD, and that's without an AArch64 SoC sporting a powerful GPU. There's also the AMD 64-bit ARM HuskyBoard, but that's not coming out until later in the year at an unknown price. NVIDIA today has lifted the lid on the Jetson TX1 as the successor to the Jetson TK1 from last year.

Read full article @ Phoronix

QNAP TS-451+ & QTS 4.2

The TS-451 was released last year, and it was a milestone for QNAP since it featured a new external design. Today, we will evaluate its successor, the TS-451+ with an upgraded CPU and the ability to take up to 8 GB of RAM.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

QNAP TS-453 Pro Review

At first glance the QNAP TS-453 Pro has little in common with the TS-453mini we recently reviewed, however they share a fair amount of hardware. In particular both NAS are powered by a Celeron J1900 processor that is paired with 2GB or 8GB of DDR3L memory, and naturally they both run on QNAP’s QTS software.

We are also pleased to see that both models come with a decent array of USB 3.0 ports for rapid data transfer from external devices.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Razer Mamba Review

As you might be assuming by the picture, the Mamba is Razer wireless gaming mouse. It features a new Philips 16000 DPI sensor and nine programmable buttons. Apart from that there this mouse is very well built and features a fully customizable RGB LED lightning on the mouse as well as on the charging station.

Read full article @ ocaholic