Reviews 52118 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

14 reasons why you shouldn't upgrade to Windows 10
AMD launches the Radeon R9 370X graphics card
AMD R9 Nano specs revealed and digested
AMD Radeon R9 NANO Preview
Asus VivoWatch Review
ASUS Z170-DELUXE (Intel LGA-1151)
Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Review: Beauty And Brawn
Buying guide: 8 best mid-range laptops: top laptops for everyday computing
Canonical Explain Why Ubuntu Is A Better Choice Than Windows 10
Cooler Master's MasterCase 5 reviewed
Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 ATX Motherboard Review
Hands-on review: Alienware X51 (2015)
Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Review
MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G
OnePlus 10000mAh Mobile USB Power Bank Review
QNAP TS-563 Review
Tiny Radeon R9 Nano to pack a wallop at $650
XYZprinting Nobel 1.0 Review



14 reasons why you shouldn't upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft has recently reported that Windows 10 is now running on over 75 million computers around the world, which signals a great jump start for the new operating system that will be part of our life for years to come. Previously, I have share with you a number of good reasons to why you should upgrade to Windows 10, which included new technologies under the hood, the return the Start menu, Cortana, Action Center, Settings app, and many new features and changes. However, with the good there is always the bad. Today we're going to go through fourteen reasons you should consider to halt the upgrade until a later feature packed update gets released.

Read full article @ Windows Central

AMD launches the Radeon R9 370X graphics card

Released to combat the recently released GeForce GTX 950 and the GTX 960. Back towards the end of July we saw the first signs of AMD preparing the Radeon R9 370X graphics card to be released, thanks to some information coming out of China. It was predicted that the 370X would emerge when Nvidia had revealed its GeForce GTX 950. Nvidia launched the GTX 950 on the 20th and just one week later AMD's response, in this highly important volume selling market segment, is the Radeon R9 370X graphics card.

AMD doesn't have a press release about the Radeon R9 370X but it was indirectly referred to in the official AMD Radeon R9 Nano release. Thanks to the new R9 370X, AMD's Radeon R9 line of graphics cards "offers a spectrum of products ranging in price from $199 – $649 SEP" (as of 27th August).

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD R9 Nano specs revealed and digested

We examine just how fast this pocket rocket is. AMD launched the premium Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card back in June this year. Designed to compete with the best consumer graphics Nvidia has to offer, Fury X uses a scaled-up GCN architecture and, for the first time, HBM memory for increased bandwidth and potential to build smaller cards.

And while the liquid-cooled Fury X puts AMD back in the big league as far as all-out performance is concerned it's not quite the GeForce-thrashing card that some expected. Of rather more interest to many is what AMD can do with the power efficiencies and massively reduced form factor of HBM memory, and AMD teased the appropriately named Nano a short while back.

Now, AMD, true to recent fashion of distilling morsels of information over time, is ready to share a few more details about the Nano ahead of its retail bow in September. The most important of these is the specification of the card, whose knowledge enables us to decipher its gaming potential.

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD Radeon R9 NANO Preview

At the launch of the Radeon R9 Fury and Fury X AMD also announced something that caught the interest of many, a small form factor yet high-end graphics card aimed at powerful small game and HTPCs, yes the Nano today is announced. Now read that well announced as in, this is a paper launch. There are no benchmark articles available as the products have not been shipped to press, media and the channel and thus sales. The new AMD Radeon R9 Nano will be a 175W TDP graphics card based on a very small form factor The product has a fully enabled Fiji GPU with 4096 stream processors - 256 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The Fiji series of GPUs is latest next iteration of the GCN (Graphics Core next) architecture from AMD. Fiji is based on revision 1.2 GCN, just like Tonga (285 & 380 series).

Read full article @ Guru3D

Asus VivoWatch Review

As we know, what people think of as smartwatches actually range from what are really pretty basic step counters to deluxe Apple Watches clad in gold. For the record, here's what they really are. The latest wearable from Asus looks like a watch, but is really more of a fitness tracker… But with a twist.It's also compatible with iPhones for the first time, because unlike the previous Asus ZenWatch, it doesn't use Google's Android Wear software.

Read full article @ Techradar

ASUS Z170-DELUXE (Intel LGA-1151)

We've seen a GAMING board, but what about those of us who want the best while making use of all the features provided by a platform? With support for NMVe devices right in the box, the ASUS Z170-DELUXE hits the ground running. Mixed with great audio and one of the most extensive BIOSes ever, the ASUS Z170-DELUXE is exactly that - deluxe.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Review: Beauty And Brawn

Love it or hate it, Apple's MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines have remained a watermark for which the majority of notebook manufacturers aspire to, whether it's enthusiast gaming companies like Razer with their Blade, or mainstream vendors like Dell via their outstanding XPS 13.

Enter Asus. They've utilized their ZenBook line to satisfy a wide range of demographics and price points, but their UX501 -- with its "Pro" designation, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960m GPU, and 4K touchscreen display -- is a Zenbook aspiring to meet and exceed Apple's flagship notebook, and look stunning while doing it...

http://hothardware.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efc4c507c2cf964fc2462caca&id=dc86aa7840&e=0c004f9c13]Read full article @ HotHardware.Com[/url]

Buying guide: 8 best mid-range laptops: top laptops for everyday computing

It seems hard to believe that laptops were once such an expensive item, they were only used in business and by the wealthiest folks. But now, both bricks-and-mortar and online stores are packed with laptops at every price point, from as low as £200 (around $300, or AU$440).Even the cheapest laptop you can find will be suitable for the most basic usage. They'll be fine for tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing and social media. There's still a trade-off though – if you go with a cheap Chromebook for example, it'll be running the more restrictive Chrome OS rather than Microsoft Windows, which might take a while to get used to.

Read full article @ Techradar

Canonical Explain Why Ubuntu Is A Better Choice Than Windows 10

Canonical say businesses who switch to Ubuntu could save as much as 70 percent versus the cost of upgrading to Windows 10.

Read full article @ OMG! Ubuntu!

Cooler Master's MasterCase 5 reviewed

Cooler Master's MasterCase 5 is the company's first product based on an ambitious design philosophy it calls "FreeForm." We put the MasterCase to the test to see how FreeForm works out in practice.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 ATX Motherboard Review

Intel recently began releasing their latest CPU, which includes a change in the socket to 1151, while there isn’t a huge performance boost over the previous generation of Intel processors, the new Skylake processor does bring some new features. Gigabyte recently sent us one of their new motherboards based on the Z170 chipset; the Z170X-UD5. This is just one of Gigabyte’s twelve motherboards featuring the socket 1151; and their highest end motherboard in their Ultra Durable line. The Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 motherboard is available today for $189.99 with free shipping.

Gigabyte uses the best solid capacitors on the market, which are rated to perform at maximum efficiency in any performance mode, rated for over 10,000 hours of use, of course depending on the system configuration. In addition, Gigabyte uses capacitors that have been customized in Jet Black, making them unique to Gigabyte motherboards. Another exclusive feature of Gigabyte motherboards is their 2x Copper PCB design; by doubling the amount of copper used in the PCB heat can be transferred more easily, improving the lifespan of the motherboard when overclocking.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Hands-on review: Alienware X51 (2015)

When it launched back in June 2012, Alienware's original X51 system had all the merits of a Steam Machine without the title: It was small in stature and perfectly tuned for gaming in the livingroom. Packing Ivy Bridge, the three year old model had a marked advantage over the much smaller crowd of mini-ITX options on the market. And while gamers lauded the system for its compact design, any attempt to overclock the system usually resulted in complete system failure.Hot on the next iteration of Intel's processors, Alienware wasn't about to fall into the same pitfall again. And so, the firm has introduced a new line of X51 systems comes with a custom, miniaturized liquid-cooling solution, all starting at $1,099 (around £700, AU$1,500).Decide you need even more power than what the premium micro system can offer? A port for the proprietary Alienware Graphics Amplifier unlocks the system's 4K capability with help from a GeForce Titan X or GTX 960 GPUs.

Read full article @ Techradar

Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

Since USB flash drivers were released they have become invaluable for transferring data from computer to computer. From simple photos to important documents USB flash drives make it easy for anyone to move their data. One thing that is often overlooked when it comes to these devices is security. Well Kingston has a great solution to that problem with their DataTraveler Locker+ G3. This USB 3.0 flash drive features hardware encryption and password protection to keep all of your data on your drive safe and secure. Let’s take a look and see what this drive is all about!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Review

With the GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G, MSI has a Maxwell based graphics card in their portfolio, which features a rather high factory overclocking and apart from that there is the brand new Twin Frozr V cooler. MSI is combining a custom PCB with a custom cooler in order to allow for great overclocking potential and we're really curious to find out what this beast can do.

Read full article @ ocaholic

MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G

Last week Nvidia launched their GTX 950, a budget focused Maxwell card. At the launch I took a look at the Asus Strix 950. Well right after the Strix came in we had the MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G come in as well. So today I’m going to see what sets the MSI apart and find out how it performs compared to the Asus as well as the two different R7 370’s that I have recently tested. This is a great chance to see how the Twin Frozr cooler on the MSI compares to the DirectCU II cooler on the Strix and to see what is the better option if you are on the market for a GTX 950.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

OnePlus 10000mAh Mobile USB Power Bank Review

Mobile power is something that’s on most of our minds, no doubt several times a day. Watching your battery life drain towards the end of the day can be a painful process, especially if you know you’re a few hours away from being able to charge your device and you’ve already got that “less than 10%” warning message on your device. When you need to watch that YouTube video, check those important emails, or simply browse Facebook to stop you from becoming bored to death on the Train, you’ll want to know you’ve got the power available to get it done.

The latest mobile USB battery from OnePlus promises impressive performance, touting a 10000mAh battery, which is more than enough to charge most modern smartphones at least three times.

Read full article @ eTeknix

QNAP TS-563 Review

Today we have a rather interesting quad-core powered NAS from QNAP that isn’t powered by the usual suspects such as Intel, Marvell, Freescale or even Annapurna Labs. Rather AMD can be found powering the new TS-x63 range from QNAP with their embedded G-Series quad-core 2.0GHz SoC. Thanks to AMD-V technology support the TS-563 that we are looking at today can run multiple Windows, Android, Linux and UNIX virtual machines...

Since being announced a few months ago at Computex 2015 we have been keen to get our hands on a member of the TS-x63 series for the simple reason that it is one of the first AMD powered NAS to hit the market.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

Tiny Radeon R9 Nano to pack a wallop at $650

The Radeon R9 Nano promises to pack Fury-like performance into an incredibly compact six-inch-long video card. Here's our take on the card--and on AMD's first public performance numbers for it, which may overstate its competitiveness.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

XYZprinting Nobel 1.0 Review

XYZprinting produces FDM 3D printers that are perfect for education such as the Da Vinci 1.0. These printers feature enclosed environments, cartridge filament systems and no nonsense straightforward software that makes them incredibly easy to use and an ideal choice for demonstrating the technology to students.At present FDM (fused deposition modeling) printers are by far the most popular consumer choice, and with good reason – they're easy to use and don't create a great deal of mess, whereas SLA (stereolithography) printers take time to maintain between prints and can get messy.So despite producing high quality prints the SLA process has, until now, really only been available to the pro market.

Read full article @ Techradar