Reviews 51949 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

anidees AI6v2
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero Review
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 2666MHz C16 Memory Kit Review
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 Review
Fractal Design's Core 500 case reviewed
Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Graphics Card Review
Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum Gaming Headset Review
Microsoft FY 2016 Q1 Results: Cloud Growth And PC Slowdown
MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G Review
OxyLED N05 Dimmable LED Tap Light Review
Samsung SSD 950 PRO 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Review
Samsung SSD 950 PRO M.2 Review: Affordable, Ultra Fast Storage
Samsung SSD 950 PRO Solid State Drive Review
Samsungs 950 Pro SSD reviewed
Sound Blaster X7 and E-MU XM7 bookshelf speakers
The Witcher 3 review: tested on 24 GPUs
ThermalTake Poseidon Z Keyboard Review
Thermaltake Poseidon Z RGB Gaming Keyboard Review
Windows 10 Privacy FAQ: What you want to know about your personal data in the OS
Xbox Elite controller review: Welcome tweaks come at a price



anidees AI6v2

The anidees AI6v2 is not simply an update to the original as the name suggests. It is actually a more feature-packed variant, with its predecessor still available for purchase. We take a really close look to figure out whether the additions warrant the price premium.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero Review

With each successive generation of CPUs, ASUS has a full product stack that includes an option for just about every user, from the hardcore gamer and overclocker to the person who just wants a good solid motherboard. The one constant is the boards are designed so the performance profiles and user experience are such that you could go from the lower end of the Z170 product stack to the top and have each board deliver the same level of performance. In the past this even extends, for the most part, to overclocking. Sure, you will get a more robust cooling solution and more robust power circuit, but in the end you still get consistent performance from one board to the next.

Along that vein of consistent performance I have the ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero. A board that is designed to fill the gap between the channel boards and upper end ROG products. The M8H is built around the Z170 chipset for use with Intel Skylake 6th generation Core series processors like the Core i7 6700K. Priced at $234, you get a lot of value and performance potential from the M8H. Multi GPU solutions from AMD and NVIDIA are supported to give you the best possible gaming solutions, along with the usual laundry list of high end hardware to provide a long lived motherboard. ASUS also provides a comprehensive software suite that just works. That being said, let's take a deeper dive into what ASUS brings to the table on one of the latest ROG offerings.

Read full article @ OCC

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 2666MHz C16 Memory Kit Review

Supporting the latest XMP 2.0 standard, this kit was designed to be fully compatible with the Intel X99 and 100 Series systems, while the 16GB modules are running at 2666MHz 16-18-18-35, while keeping low voltage of 1.2V. The LPX code name suggests that we are dealing with a low-profile kit, which assures good clearance with all large CPU heatsinks. As we have seen in our tests, the kit can also run at higher speeds than the rated one so we have succeeded to reach 2933MHz while keeping the stock timings, but the voltage needed a small bump at 1.35V.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P2 Review

EVGA power supplies have been scoring well in our lab tests now for some time. Their partnership with design manufacturers Seasonic and SuperFlower is in no small part a factor to their continued success. EVGA sent us several of their new P2 models for analysis, and today we take a look at the 650 watt model which retails for around £100 inc vat in the UK.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Fractal Design's Core 500 case reviewed

Fractal Design's Core 500 is the company's take on a Mini-ITX case that stays compact while making room for big radiators and graphics cards, along with plenty of storage. We poked around and put our Casewarmer test system inside to see how the Core 500 measures up.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Graphics Card Review

Just a little while ago the world was introduced to the new budget Maxwell GPU from Nvidia. The budget segment is considered by many to be in the range of sub - $200.00 for a GPU. The GTX 950 is aimed at the budget market. Gigabyte recently released the Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme edition. The Xtreme edition's chips are binned … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum Gaming Headset Review

Logitech has been in the gaming space as long as I can remember. Many people know them for their gaming keyboards and mice, but they also have a rich history in gaming headsets as well. They have just released their new Artemis Spectrum Gaming Headset line which is made up of the G933 and G633. The G933 is a wireless headset and the G633 is a wired headset. Today we will be taking a look at the G633 which features Logitech’s new Pro-G audio drivers, 7.1 channel surround sound, 3 programmable G-keys, RGB lighting, dual audio inputs, and much more! Will this be the ultimate headset for all of you gamers out there? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Microsoft FY 2016 Q1 Results: Cloud Growth And PC Slowdown

Today Microsoft released their earnings from the first quarter of fiscal year 2016. Revenue fell 12% year-over-year to $20.4 billion for the quarter, driven by a 17% decline in revenue from their More Personal Computing segment. Operating income for the quarter was $5.8 billion, with gross margin at 64.6%. Despite the revenue decline, net income rose 2% to $4.6 billion, with earnings per share beating expectations at $0.57.

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G Review

The MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G is an extremely powerful R9 390X custom graphics card. The cooler on this particular card is maybe the most capable model available these days. Apparently, this combination sounds rather compelling, so we're interested to see what it can do in our review.

Read full article @ ocaholic

OxyLED N05 Dimmable LED Tap Light Review

Lights, lights and more lights, yep I’ve got another one for review today and then another one tomorrow! Today for review I’ve got the OxyLed N05 which is a single LED tap light that can be used for like in your closest, which is exactly what I used it for. It’s a tap light but it’s a touch sensitive tap light that you can adjust the brightness by touching it. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ Technogog

Samsung SSD 950 PRO 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Review

Since becoming mainstream some 40 years most have forgotten the magic of the Personal Computer (PC). But how they have changed the course of humanity and what it brings to our daily lives is undeniable. Sure the PC is all grown-up and unit sales are still slowing down, but that does not mean that the development of new technology and hardware has slowed down. The advance of PC Hardware continues to march at a daunting pace. Storage drives were the slowest part of a PC for decades, but the introduction of Solid-State Drives (SSDs) with NAND Flash memory have helped to greatly improve system performance. As great as SSDs have been in recent years they were stuck using the SATA interface and still used the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) that was originally developed for SATA hard drives more than a decade ago. SSDs long ago were being limited by the SATA interface, so the high-end enthusiast and enterprise drives were moved over to the faster PCI Express (PCIe) interface. The move to the PCIe interface has helped greatly, but there is still more performance that can be had from todays low latency NAND Flash memory chips that is being held back by AHCI. NVM Express (NVMe) or the Non-Volatile Memory Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCI) is the next transition for storage drive to become faster. SSDs that are able to use NVMe on the PCIe bus have allowed the companies that build the drives to create higher performing products with lower latencies than ever before. The only problem is that no company has made an effort to take M.2 PCIe SSDs with NVMe to the mainstream market.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Samsung SSD 950 PRO M.2 Review: Affordable, Ultra Fast Storage

The rapid pace of innovation in the solid state storage market shows no signs of letting up. In only a few generations, the industry bumped up against the limits of the legacy SATA interface, and began leveraging PCI Express for additional bandwidth with some passable, though somewhat clunky bridged solutions (in retrospect). Then some ultra-fast, native PCI Express offerings hit, and have since evolved into multiple form factors, including slotted and gumstick models, with varying physical interfaces.

Today we’re going to show you the latest NVMe solid state drive to arrive in the HotHardware labs, the Samsung SSD 950 PRO M.2. As its name suggests, this drive uses the M.2 interface, which makes it an ideal candidate for the latest desktop and mobile systems that sport M.2 slots. Though the drives are small in stature, they are big on performance, and Samsung has priced them aggressively too...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Samsung SSD 950 PRO Solid State Drive Review

In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Samsung SSD 950 PRO, an M.2 solid state drive among the first to utilize the ultra-fast NVMe protocol, on both Intel X99 and Z170 platforms. Featuring Samsung’s second generation 32-layer MLC V-NAND, SSD 950 PRO M.2 is available in 256 GB and 512 GB storage capacities. The SSD 950 PRO utilizes Samsung’s UDX controller to deliver sequential read speeds up to 2500 MB/s and writes up to 1500 MB/s, while random read performance reaches up to 300,000 IOPS and write speeds up to 110,000 IOPS. Performance is further optimized with Samsung Magician software, and durability enhanced by the drive’s Dynamic Thermal Guard and AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption. 950 PRO includes a 5-year limited warranty, and promises up to 400 terabytes written (TBW) for 512GB model.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Samsungs 950 Pro SSD reviewed

Samsung's 950 Pro SSD makes the next-generation jump with a PCIe interface and the NVMe protocol, all wrapped up in an M.2 form factor. We put this drive through our testing gauntlet to find out what NVMe and V-NAND can do together.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Sound Blaster X7 and E-MU XM7 bookshelf speakers

Like most of you PC and along with it my office is almost like a living being, slowly evolving. Every year or two I’m changing out my video cards, my motherboard, even keyboards and mice. It’s weird though, looking back there are only a few things that seem to be very consistent, my desk and for the most part my speakers. Well when I was replacing my desk last fall I decided that I wanted to move from the Corsair SP2500’s to something new. Now keep in mind, the Corsairs sounded good as did the Klipsch’s that I have before that. So to continue to evolve I wanted to go a new direction. Well the timing was good as Creative Labs had just recently introduced their X7 and more recently their E-MU XM7 bookshelf speakers. I loved the X5 when I covered it and for a long time I even used it over the onboard on my PC but the X7 looked to be a much more fitting permanent option. Well I’ve been testing both the X7 and the XM7 speakers for a while now and we can finally sit down and go over what they are and how well they performed.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

The Witcher 3 review: tested on 24 GPUs

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, devolped by the Polish developer CD Projekt RED is an action role-playing game set in a mythological playing world.  It is classed as an open world game, something that usually gets the attention of PC gamers as this would normally require decent hardware. As The Witcher 3 is only released on PC, Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 it can be classed as a modern game that is not held back by the graphic limitation of the previous generations of consoles.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

ThermalTake Poseidon Z Keyboard Review

Today we are taking a look at the ThermalTake Poseidon Z Mechanical Keyboard, featuring Kailh brown switches. This model lacks RGB lighting but at £64.99, could this be a decent option for those who just want a basic mechanical keyboard? Let’s find out…

Read full article @ KitGuru

Thermaltake Poseidon Z RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

Today we are looking at a mechanical gaming keyboard, the Thermaltake Poseidon Z RGB, from Thermaltake Tt eSports. As technology has progressed and evolved, we have seen the introduction of RGB lighting effects in almost everything that could possible incorporate a LED. Let's dig in and take a closer look at the Poseidon Z RGB.

Read full article @ TechnnologyX

Windows 10 Privacy FAQ: What you want to know about your personal data in the OS

With the advent of Windows 10 and its super-helpful digital personal assistant Cortana, plus its emphasis on cloud-based data that is automagically uploaded, several people have gotten nervous that Big Bing is watching you. Here is the Windows 10 privacy FAQ, based on what we know now.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Xbox Elite controller review: Welcome tweaks come at a price

Most won't find the inventive design ideas quite worth the $150 asking price.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica