Reviews 51950 Published by

Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

Apple iPhone 6 Plus: The TechSpot Review
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 STRIX Review
Corsair Gaming's K70 RGB keyboard reviewed
Corsair Voyager Air 2 Wireless Hard Drive Review
Gigabyte G1 Gaming Geforce GTX 980 Review
Kingston HyperX Cloud Headset Review
Kingwin EZ-CLONE USB 3.0 to SATA & IDE One Click Clone Adapter Review
Mighty Mouse? EVGA's Torq X10 Reviewed
MSI X99S Gaming 7 Motherboard Review
MSI Z97S SLI PLUS (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review
openSUSE 13.2 Beta 1 vs. Fedora Linux Benchmarks
Palit GTX 970 JetStream 4 GB
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Computer Case Review
XTracGear Mouse Surfaces Review



Apple iPhone 6 Plus: The TechSpot Review

While virtually every other manufacturer began pumping out phones with increasingly larger screens in the wake of the Galaxy Note's arrival in 2012, Apple held off as long as it could. The company continued to set sales records with the iPhone 5 and 5s, but eventually it had to wake up and smell the roses. Apple's response finally came in the form of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch 6 Plus -- the latter of which represents its first foray into phablet territory.

Read full article @ Techspot

ASUS GeForce GTX 980 STRIX Review

As expected ASUS is also amongst NVIDIA's launch partners for their new Maxwell based graphics cards. In this review we're having a close look at the GTX 980 STRIX, which is ASUS's flagship model for now. Therefore it features a custom PCB as well as ASUS's semi-passive STRIX cooler. This should be a rather punch combination and we're curious to learn more about this card.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Corsair Gaming's K70 RGB keyboard reviewed

Corsair Gaming's K70 RGB keyboard has been hotly anticipated since its debut at CES earlier this year. Does it live up to the hype? We put the keyboard and its accompanying software to the test to find out.

Read full article @ The tech Report

Corsair Voyager Air 2 Wireless Hard Drive Review

he mobile market has grown absolutely huge over the past several years, but sometimes we find that data sharing isn’t very convenient and storage space is limited on our devices. Thankfully manufacturers are designing devices to share your data across multiple devices, even providing you the capability to stream high definition video content across these devices – all hopefully trouble free. Last year we took a look at Corsair’s first wireless hard drive, called Voyager Air, which was a very sleek and impressive unit that we really liked. Today, we’re going to take a look at the more recently revamped version, conveniently called Voyager Air 2. We’ll take a look and see what this drive all has to offer and if there is anything new brought to the table.

If you haven’t already noticed, Voyager Air 2 is completely redesigned on the outside, introducing a few new features and removing another. The exterior is now completely flat black (with exception to the indicator panel), with a blue bottom, and the sharp styling has been changed up a bit. Also new on the exterior are a series a easier-to-see LEDs, thanks to their angle and color, and hidden buttons instead of slide switches to power on/off the unit and turn on/off WiFi.

Corsair’s Voyager Air 2 is only available in black this time around, with 1TB of storage, and the initial MSRP ($179.99) is $20 cheaper than its version 1 counterpart. Right now you can pick up your own Voyager Air 2 (CMFAIR-VA2-1000-NA) on Amazon for $169.99 shipped, but there is a catch as to why it is $20 cheaper on the MSRP level. Voyager Air 2 does not include the charging kit that version 1 did, so you have to separately spend $27.45 shipped on Amazon for the kit (CMFAIR-PWRKIT-A). This kit will include a carrying pouch, another USB 3.0 cable, DC power cable, 2A car adapter, and a wall adapter with four snap-in plugs for North America, Europe, UK, and Australia.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Gigabyte G1 Gaming Geforce GTX 980 Review

The hot summer days in New England are over and the leaves will be starting to change soon. Thankfully, that means the air conditioners can be shut off and, usually, we get a month or two of relief before the heating season kicks in. Balancing our use of natural resources, whether they be power, gas, or oil, is something that has to be done in order to not end up with a big fat bill from the utility companies and some of that usage certainly comes from our affinity for electronic devices. I can’t tell you how many things are plugged in at my home all the time sucking juice off the grid.

Power usage, specifically, is something that has become a huge concern for computer users and clearly they are often willing to pay a premium up front for parts that will save them money in the long run. This can be seen with the introduction of the 80 Plus standards for PSUs, which are continuing to become more efficient. Smaller PSUs are often used in modern systems now, as well, because our processors and our GPUs all have the ability to produce more performance while using less wattage. The new GTX 980, with only a TDP of 165W, is an enthusiast class graphics card that we can look at as an example.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Kingston HyperX Cloud Headset Review

For today’s review we will be looking at the latest pro gaming headset from Kingston. You may be thinking, “wait a minute, Kingston makes memory and storage products – what is this gaming headset talk?”

The HyperX Cloud Headset is actually Kingston’s second foray into the world of professional computer gaming accessories. Previously Kingston teamed up with Steel Series for their first iteration of the HyperX branded gaming headphones.

Rather than designing a headset from the ground up Kingston enlisted help from Q-Pad in the creation of the HyperX Cloud. This model is actually a rebranded Qpad QH-90 headset packed with additional goodies and features. It is designed for gaming, listening to music and watching videos or movies.

Read full article @ TestFreaks

Kingwin EZ-CLONE USB 3.0 to SATA & IDE One Click Clone Adapter Review

The time for new computer upgrades are here and one of the most popular ways of speeding up an older existing system is to get a faster and higher capacity solid state drive. After all, you always need more space and the SSD hard drives are getting faster and easier to afford and these silent wonders are getting larger and larger capacity as mechanicals are slowly fading away. But, what about all the data you already have and you have all your settings just right and then there are your pictures. Maybe you need your new setup to stay the way the old one was before. Maybe you just want bigger but not a complete overhaul. You could do a data transfer wizard but that takes time and then you need to do a clean install before you can re-install your settings and sometimes things don’t go so well that way. You could save all that heartache and time data with the Kingwin EZ-CLONE USB 3.0 to SATA & IDE One Click Clone Adapter. It’s a a shiny little black box that is a very handy duplicator and drive hub by cloning that drive of yours to the new one all in one step data and all.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Mighty Mouse? EVGA's Torq X10 Reviewed

If your any kind of a computing enthusiast, you're quite familiar with EVGA, even if you haven't bought and of their hardware. From power supplies to motherboards and graphics cards, the company has established a solid reputation for producing high-quality, enthusiast equipment. EVGA recently sent over one of their new Torq X10 gaming mice -- does this new entrant into the crowded high-end mouse market deserve your gaming dollar? Let's take a look...

Mighty Mouse? EVGA's Torq X10 Reviewed

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

MSI X99S Gaming 7 Motherboard Review

While the X99 platform and its plentiful PCIe connectivity form a strong gaming foundation, the cost of an LGA2011-3 motherboard, DDR4 memory, and the Haswell-E CPU will put a considerable dent in any buyer’s pocket. So when we see a gaming-orientated motherboard offering 3-way graphics capability, eight-core CPU support, and an enhanced audio solution, features take precedence and make the HEDT platform seem a more alluring investment. Hitting the entry-level cohort of X99′s product range, can MSI’s £200 X99S Gaming 7 prove that the HEDT platform’s motherboard is at least one area where money can be saved?

Read full article @ KitGuru

MSI Z97S SLI PLUS (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Something that becomes apparently obvious with the motherboards I review on a regular basis is that most of them have too many features for the average user. That’s too many in the sense that most of them would go unused but mainly it is too many in that it adds unnecessary cost. Let’s face it none of us would say no to extra features if we didn’t have to pay for them, even if they remained unused.

In the Z97 space, MSI appear to have come up with a solution to that problem with their Z97S SLI PLUS motherboard. Sure it isn’t the prettiest motherboard available sporting the Z97 chipset, neither is it the most feature rich but what it does have going for it is a well struck-up balance of pricing and features. For around £100 in the UK, or $135 in the USA, the MSI Z97S SLI PLUS offers you a feature rich platform which includes SATA III, SATA Express, M.2, USB 3.0, SLI and CrossFire support, a UEFI BIOS, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, a decent amount of fan connectivity and solid audio. The colour scheme does seem a little confusing with a combination of a brown PCB and blue/black heatsinks, so this is definitely aimed at being a motherboard for people without side panel windows.

Read full article @ eTeknix

openSUSE 13.2 Beta 1 vs. Fedora Linux Benchmarks

With this week's openSUSE 13.2 Beta release I decided to run some benchmarks to see how the performance compares to that of Fedora Linux...

Read full article @ Phoronix

Palit GTX 970 JetStream 4 GB

Palit's GTX 970 JetStream is one of the highest clocked, custom design GTX 970s out there. It features a triple slot, dual fan cooler that will completely stop the fans in idle and light gaming. Palit's card is also the most affordable custom design, with just a $15 price premium.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Computer Case Review

Phanteks is a company that has been around since 2007, but how many have heard of them. As of lately I would said a lot more. When some engineers and a design team paired up they set out to create the best cooling systems. With four cases under their belt, including the Enthoo Luxe, Phanteks have come into battle hard for their share of the computer case sales.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

XTracGear Mouse Surfaces Review

A few weeks ago I received a small package (as opposed to the usual large case packages) and since "good things come in small packages", I immediately opened it. Sure enough it was full of goodies, specifically three mouse surfaces. They were just what I needed as my old gaming surface, a hard plastic model with a sticky bottom, was wearing out on the top and getting clogged up on the bottom.

PCXmods had shipped me three of their updated XTracGear (formally XTracPads, though the surfaces are still maked as such) mouse surfaces: the Carbonic (a letter size), the Ripper (a smaller poster/card stock size) and the Ripper XXL (desk sized) model. These mouse surface models were re-engineered using new materials and technology.

All were designed to give the user a responsive experience, while remaining comfortable on hands. With a sure grip backing, these surfaces will not slide around even when placed on a highly polished desk. Now let’s have a closer look at these updated mouse surfaces.

Read full article @ Neoseeker