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Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

Best Hardware of 2015 - The KitGuru Editorial Awards
Netgear ProSAFE XS728T 24-Port 10GbE Ethernet Switch
Patriot Viper 4 2800MHz 16GB (2x8GB) Dual-Channel Memory Kit
QNAP TurboNAS TS-451+8G NAS Server Review
The Best Case Mods of 2015
Toshiba 16GB TransMemory U401 USB 2.0 Flash Drive Review
VRAM to the Test: How Much Memory Is Enough?



Best Hardware of 2015 - The KitGuru Editorial Awards

Well here we are, 16 years into the new millennium and the rate of technological development shows no signs of slowing down. As the KitGuru Editorial Team sat down to discuss the best products of the year, we were constantly reminded of how much can change in just such a short period of time.

Read full article @ Kitguru

Netgear ProSAFE XS728T 24-Port 10GbE Ethernet Switch

Today, we will evaluate a high-end switch from Netgear. The XS728T offers 10GbE transfer speeds through copper cables and is also equipped with four SFP+ ports for fiber optic cables.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Patriot Viper 4 2800MHz 16GB (2x8GB) Dual-Channel Memory Kit

All new motherboards and CPU’s are generally an improvement over what they replace. Well, Skylake goes above and beyond and replaces the old DDR3 memory format. This is the first mainstream chip to utilize DDR4 as the memory standard, and as a result, there are a large number of new kits coming to market. Before this you could only get DDR4 in quad-channel kits for the X99 platform but since Skylake uses dual-channel memory there is a need for proper dual-challen-kits. DDR4 offers higher available speeds at lower voltages, and we will be covering one of these dual-channel kits in this review.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

QNAP TurboNAS TS-451+8G NAS Server Review

With just hours before we say goodbye to 2015 and embrace 2016 i decided to upload yet another review (our last of 2015) mainly because i met some people the other day who knew nothing about network attached storage devices (NAS). I mean not owning one but having a general idea is one thing (happens all the time really) but not knowing that such devices even exist is strange especially since these people have been following technology for at least over a decade now. Anyways these guys are looking for an easy way to share files with their friends and families (both online and local), download large chunks of data over the internet without using their computers and if possible to playback downloaded data directly onto their home theater and portable devices. My answer to them was to simply wait and read this review once up to see what NAS servers are capable off and what better way to deliver on that than for us to test the latest model by QNAP the TurboNAS TS-451+8G.

QNAP Systems, Inc., as its brand promise "Quality Network Appliance Provider", aims to deliver comprehensive offerings of cutting edge network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder (NVR) solutions featured with ease-of-use, robust operation, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. QNAP integrates technologies and designs to bring forth quality products that effectively improve business efficiency on file sharing, virtualization applications, storage management and surveillance in the business environments, as well as enrich entertainment life for home users with the offering of a fun multimedia center experience. Headquartered in Taipei, QNAP delivers its solutions to the global market with nonstop innovation and passion.

QNAP has been releasing more models lately than ever before and as a result some of those models are actually very close in terms of specifications and even closer when it comes to offered features (check the TS-453Mini for example). With that small notice out of the way the latest TS-451+8G wears the same J1900 quad-core Intel Celeron SoC model (64Bit/22nm/2MB L2 Cache) running at 2GHz (2.41GHz boost) we've seen used in NAS servers quite a lot lately (the Intel® HD Graphics Mesa DRI Bay Trail running at 688MHz takes care of the graphics/playback end) along with 8GB of DDR3L RAM (running at 1600MHz) and 512MB of flash memory. The TS-451+8G also features 4 SATA III drive bays (for 3.5" and 2.5" drives), 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 2 RJ-45 Gigabit LAN ports, HDMI v1.4a port and a build-in IR sensor which can be used with their RM-IR002 remote control (included in the bundle). As for the software-end of the TS-451+8G we decided to test it with the latest QTS 4.2.1 Beta by QNAP which among the usual features it also offers the previously seen virtualization station which you can use to install multiple OS onto the NAS (Windows included) and the ability to run both LXC and Docker virtualization technologies (you can use LXC to load Linux virtual machines) via the brand new Container station (can also be used to deploy LibreOffice, MongoDB, Nginx, Node.js, Redis, MySQL, WordPress, Deluge, Minecraft, Wine, Jenkins, GitLab, Redmine, Joomla!, and much more).

Read full article @ NikKTech

The Best Case Mods of 2015

Case mods have been a staple in the PC industry for a very long time. They allow systembuilders, artists, gamers, and pretty much anyone to really make their PC build their own. Case modding has never been more popular and many companies actually commission modders to create one of a kind builds to show off their new hardware or case. Each week we feature a mod or build that has been completed in the community in our Case Mod Friday section. Going through all of the features of the past year we have picked out a few that really caught our eye! Without further ado here are our picks for the best case mods of 2015! In no particular order of course!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Toshiba 16GB TransMemory U401 USB 2.0 Flash Drive Review

While the Transmemory U401 has a more professional look and durable aluminum body, we were not too happy about its overall performance, especially the one involving writes. The product is falling behind the U201 and the low performance even for an USB 2.0 drive makes it unpleasant even when transferring a lot of small files.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

VRAM to the Test: How Much Memory Is Enough?

Since publishing our annual graphics card roundup, we've received several reader inquiries regarding the performance difference between GPUs sporting 2GB and 4GB. We have put together a clock-for-clock comparison of the GeForce GTX 960 and Radeon R9 380 using 2GB and 4GB cards. Also, the previous-gen Radeon R9 290 4GB and the newer (rebadged) R9 390 8GB.

Read full article @ Techspot