Reviews 51946 Published by

Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

AMD Athlon X4 880K spec revealed
Cooler Master Quick Fire XTi keyboard Review
Cree LED Connected Smart Light Bulb Review
Gigabyte Brix Projector Review
Gigabyte unveils Z170X-UD5 TH Thunderbolt 3 motherboard
Kingston HyperX Predator DDR 3000C15 Quad-Channel Memory Kit Review
Motorola Moto G (2015) Review: Still the best budget smartphone
Project CARS review: tested on 24 GPUs
Rosewill STAR PREDATOR Case Review: Balance Between Price and Value
Runtastic Orbit Review
SilverStone Teratrend TS432U 4 Bay 3.5" HDD Tower Enclosure Review
The Recreated ZX Spectrum launches today
Vertagear SL2000 Gaming Chair Review
WD Red Pro 6 TB Review - High Performance NAS HDD Gets a Capacity Bump
ZOTAC launches the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 gaming mini PC



AMD Athlon X4 880K spec revealed

The spec for the AMD Athlon X4 880K has leaked onto the internet. This AMD processor is based on Kaveri, but without a GPU.

The Athlon X4 880K Specs appeared in a compatibility listing from motherboard manufacturer Biostar.
The chip, which hasn't been formally announced yet, will run at 4 GHz and will follow-up the 870K which is yet to be released.
There is no word on how much it will all cost yet but the 860K has been seen for Euro70, which should give you some idea.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Cooler Master Quick Fire XTi keyboard Review

We review the Cooler Master Quick Fire XTi mechanical keyboard. This Cherry MX mechanical keyboard comes with new RB (yes not RGB) LEDs. Overall a simple looking yet very versatile keyboard with some very cool per key LED lighting features that can animate and has compatibility with macro's, without the use of any software. Let's have a peek shall we ?

As Cooler Master opens up a new chapter in their product line in the QuickFire range they now introduce the XTi, a simple looking yet very cool mechanical keyboard that has red/blue per key LED backlighting while being fitted with Cherry MX mechanical switches. It's not just all about the RGB LEDs and cool lighting animations of course, the keyboard comes in a really sturdy black design and as simple as it is, it just looks incredible (though I'll immediately acknowledge that taste is a very subjective thing). The LED lit Cherry keys are UV coated for long lasting letters, and yeah keys and can be lit and animated per key, withouth the use of software. Basically you can mix two colors, blue and red LED. This allows for a combination of up-to 35 colors per key which can be changed. A few LED animation modes are thrown in as well, wave, breathing and some responsive effects.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Cree LED Connected Smart Light Bulb Review

If you are beginning to dive into building out your Smart Home then you will probably start out with a hub which controls all of the smart home products. The second purchase that many smart home enthusiasts make after purchasing their hub is a light bulb that is controllable via the hub. Until recently, smart LED bulbs have been too far out of reach for consumers to afford for replacing a few bulbs around the house. Only a year ago, did smart bulbs cost upwards to $30 just for a single bulb to be controlled via a hub and today with Cree’s Connected LED bulbs the price has been dropped down to $14.99. While yes, $14.99 is still 40% more than the traditional LED bulb, it does include all of the technology needed to make your home smart, well with the hub of course. The CREE LED Connected Bulb that we are looking at today is a direct replacement for 60 watt bulbs that you have in your home today but also includes the technology within it to make it smart. Not only is the technology there to make it smart, it’s also an instant-on bulb which makes it great for places where you need instant lighting and not having to wait for the bulb to “warm up”. It also has a brightness of 815 lumen’s, 25,000 hours of lifetime, and is estimated to only cost about $1.64 a year to run.

Read full article @ Geek Inspector

Gigabyte Brix Projector Review

With the Brix Projector, Gigabyte has a small form factor PC in its portfolio, which comes with a built-in mini projector and it is based on Intel's Haswell platform. Apart from that the system features an attractive price and even the performance might be on a very reasonable level, since there is an Intel i3-U-series CPU inside.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Gigabyte unveils Z170X-UD5 TH Thunderbolt 3 motherboard

Claims a world's first, with the interface available over two USB Type-C connectors. Gigabyte Technology has revealed its new Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard. This Skylake processor supporting (LGA1151) motherboard is claimed to be the world's first to be the Intel Thunderbolt 3 certified. Thunderbolt 3 connectivity is available over either of the two reversible USB Type-C connectors on the rear I/O panel.

Read full article @ Hexus

Kingston HyperX Predator DDR 3000C15 Quad-Channel Memory Kit Review

August 2014, Intel launched its high-end X99 platform, a brand new socket in need of DDR4 modules. DDR4 warrants massive bandwidth plus they can also pack a far higher density per stick. All this goodness is available at your disposal while requiring a mere 1.2-1.35Volts. Only drawback, as with each new technology was at launch the high retail price; half a year later these prices have stabilized and even the high end kits are becoming more and more affordable. Today we have a look at one of the HyperX enthusiast kits: the 3000C15 quad channel kit, the fastest kit in their DDR4 Quad Channel ready X99 lineup. Will the out of the box speeds satisfy the hunger of this enthusiast reviewer or is there more under the hood?

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Motorola Moto G (2015) Review: Still the best budget smartphone

After delivering the best budget smartphone in 2013 and 2014, Motorola is going for the hat trick with this year's Moto G. It still costs $180 and it still features great hardware for the price. One of the biggest updates to the 2015 Moto G is that it finally comes with 4G LTE connectivity as standard, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410’s integrated LTE modem. We’re also seeing decent upgrades to the front and rear cameras, MotoMaker support, plus a water resistant design.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Project CARS review: tested on 24 GPUs

Early May British developers Slightly Mad Studio's released Project CARS and the game became an instant hit among racing sim enthousiasts. The word CARS in the title does not only indicate the driving kind but is also an abbreviation of Community Assisted Racing Simulator. The last word obvioulsy hold a key to what kind of game this is, where the likes of Need for Speed: Shift predominately were built for fun the new Project CARS is trying to offer a realistic driving experience. Hardware.Info tested the game on 24 different GPUs on three different resolutions and two different quality settings.

Playing with a steering wheel is no unnecessary luxury in the game and we can imagine a lot of gamers have dusted off their steering wheel. The offical Project CARS forum has actually posted a rumor that the sales of steering wheels have exploded over the last month and looking at our own statistics in the gamecontrollers product group in our price comparison tool the top 10 consists of nothing else but steering wheels.

The game offers no less than 70 different cars and 100 different tracks offering different environmental elements. If you look at the average review scores of the game Metacritic states an average of 83%, GameRankings an average of 82.2%.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Rosewill STAR PREDATOR Case Review: Balance Between Price and Value

Every once in a while I need a new case to mod off. It takes a while for me to find a right case that has potentials to work with. I always take price in to consideration when choosing the case. Lets face it, no one wants to spend hundreds of dollars on the case that they will rip a … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Runtastic Orbit Review

The Runtastic Orbit entered a busy market in July 2014, as a host of brands from Garmin to Samsung to Huawei put out a tracking band at around the same time.The Runtastic Orbit landed at a key time, about a year after the frontrunners like the Fitbit Flex, but just before the faster brands spun out second-generation products. So a year after launch, and a few price drops later - to about £80/$70 - how does the Runtastic Orbit stack up?Screen and battery lifeThe screen, according to Runtastic, is an OLED number, measuring about 14mm square. You hit the single silver button to experience the off-white-on-black OLED dot matrix display. It's bright enough indoors, but outdoors it's not only tiny, but so washed out as to be all but useless. The fact that the company's logo is slapped beneath it like a sticker that needs removing doesn't add much to the experience, either. Battery life is claimed to be 'up to 7 days', which based on my using but not charging the band for over a week or so, seems about right.Build, comfort and strapRuntastic has ingeniously created a range of accessory straps and pedometer-style pods for the Orbit device. Like a Fitbit Flex or a Samsung Gear, the screen unit pops out to allow your sense of personal style to take over in choices of strap (as long as it's one of the six mandated colours). I landed the standard black and blue straps, and they're a little underwhelming.

Read full article @ Techradar

SilverStone Teratrend TS432U 4 Bay 3.5" HDD Tower Enclosure Review

Storage capacity is one very large problem that haunts professionals and enthusiasts since as far back as i can recall but nowadays due to the appearance of new technologies like 1080p and even 4k things are even worse. Sure consumers can now find several 4/6TB external desktop solutions (even 8TB ones are available but in much smaller numbers) but what happens when that's simply not enough and you want to make the best out of the available desktop space? Luckily many manufacturers have released numerous 3.5" external enclosures in the recent years for all tastes featuring as many as eight 2.5/3.5" bays which end users can use with multiple RAID and/or JBOD modes. Teratrend by SilverStone released several external enclosures a couple of years ago and since we finally have access to their product lines today we're testing the flagship TS432U model.

Teratrend Technology Inc., a division of SilverStone, was founded in 2010 as a professional storage solution provider with focus on industrial design and manufacturing of storage products and accessories. To meet increasing demands for cloud media access and security, Teratrend will release and develop cloud and small disk array system applications for consumers and small businesses. Teratrend will taking full advantage of the latest technologies to bring consumer and business users easy and reliable ways to manage data storage, simplify operation, share and sync files across different platforms through PC to smart phone and access data anytime anywhere. Teratrend aims to deliver products with diverse features and the best in customer services. With distribution centers in different areas of the globe, Teratrend products can be seen all over the world, not just for computer users but also for home entertainment use. Providing leisure with integration of advanced technologies that is functional and making them enjoyable to use.

The TS432U is a quad bay SATA III 3.5" external desktop enclosure that features both USB 3.0 and eSATA connectivity for optimal data transfer rates. Teratrend has also equipped the TS432U with a completely tool-free slide-in design for the drives, two 60mm exhaust fans and a medium sized LCD display via which the end user can not only check the current status of the mounted drives and the device itself but also manage the desired mode (the TS432U supports RAID 0/1/3/5/10 and LARGE modes) and use the drive duplicator/clone feature without having to plug the enclosure into a PC. What really drew our attention however is the Windows software Teratrend bundles with the TS432U which allows for hassle-free management of the drives (also supports SMART monitoring) and thanks to its user friendly GUI even people without much experience should have no problem using it.

Read full article @ NikKTech

The Recreated ZX Spectrum launches today

Full sized Bluetooth enabled keyboard based system will cost £99. The Recreated ZX Spectrum has launched today. This is a full sized recreation of ye olde Sinclair ZX Spectrum manifested as a Bluetooth keyboard with associated app/web app. It is compatible with Apple iOS, Android, Windows and Mac computers. If you are using a computer you can eschew Bluetooth and make use of a wired USB connection.

The original Sinclair ZX Spectrum launched in 1982 and became immensely popular, with a total of about five million units sold over its lifetime. Some people credit it with kick-starting the UK games software industry. This ancient computer is widely emulated on other systems but for some an authentic controller/input device like the new Recreated ZX Spectrum is the only way to go to enjoy surfing waves of nostalgia.

Read full article @ Hexus

Vertagear SL2000 Gaming Chair Review

Much like the beds we sleep in, it’s very important to select the right chair to sit in for a good portion of our lives. I owned a comfortable office chair that followed me around after college, and played several roles at the dining table on occasion. More recently, there was the expensive Embody chair review that stirred controversy. Now we’ve got gaming chairs, bringing style together with luxury. In this article for Benchmark Reviews, I report my test results with the Vertagear SL2000 S-Line Racing Series gaming chair.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

WD Red Pro 6 TB Review - High Performance NAS HDD Gets a Capacity Bump

Despite the increasing affordability of SSDs, hard drives continue to remain the storage medium of choice for applications where capacity and cost factors outweigh performance requirements. Specialty drives have become the order of the day, with hard drive vendors having separate lineups to target different market segments such as desktop computers, SOHO NAS units, SMB / SME NAS units and NVRs. Western Digital was the first to introduce a 6 TB drive in the SOHO NAS drive space, but Seagate came back a few months later with a souped-up 6 TB Enterprise NAS HDD targeting the SMB / SME NAS units. Last month, Western Digital finally released the 6 TB version of the WD Red Pro for the SMB / SME NAS units. Read on for a look at the performance of the drive.

Read full article @ Anandtech

ZOTAC launches the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 gaming mini PC

Intel Core i5-5200U and Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 in a minimal, compact, matte black chassis. ZOTAC has launched the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 gaming mini PC, which it showed off at Gamescom 2015 last month. A casual computer store browser might expect the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 to feature an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 GPU - but no - this mini-PC's key performance components are an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM and a 5th gen Intel Core i5-5200U CPU.

Read full article @ Hexus