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Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

A first taste of Lollipop on Nvidias Shield Tablet
ADATA SP610 512GB SSD Review
be quiet! Silent Base 800
BT Home Hub 5 Review
Corsair Neutron XT 240GB SSD Review
Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid Tower Case Review
Fuji X100T Review
GIGABYTE Launches X99M-Gaming 5: Micro-ATX for Haswell-E
How to Enable VMware VAAI and Install NetApp Plugin on ESXi
MSI X99S Gaming 7 Motherboard Review
NVIDIA Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA) Performance
NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Android Lollipop Update Hands-On With Benchmarks
QNAP TurboNAS TS-653 Pro NAS Server Review
SensoGlove Review
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review
Step By Step Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) LAMP Server Setup
TCL Roku TV Review
Tesoro Tizona Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
TRENDnet TPL-407E2K Powerline 500 AV Adapter Starter Kit Review



A first taste of Lollipop on Nvidias Shield Tablet

Nvidia's Shield Tablet starts getting its Android 5.0 Lollipop update today. We've taken a quick look at an early preview build to see how Google's latest OS fares on Nvidia's flagship slate.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

ADATA SP610 512GB SSD Review

With the price of large capacity Solid State Drives dropping throughout 2014, we felt it was a good time to take a look at the 512GB version of the ADATA SP610. This drive is equipped with the excellent Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller and has dropped in price to around the £170 inc vat mark. Should you be shortlisting this drive for a new system build before the end of the year?

Read full article @ KitGuru

be quiet! Silent Base 800

The Silent Base 800 is be quiet!'s long awaited entry into the case market. Rumors were confirmed at Computex 2014 with the case making its first official appearance, and after more than 12 months in development, it is finally available. The resulting Silent Base 800 may just be the start of a great new product line by be quiet!.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

BT Home Hub 5 Review

The fifth generation of the Internet router which comes free as part of every BT Broadband contract, the BT Home Hub 5, is possibly the best bundled router around and could even give third-party vendors a few headaches.It's almost identical in shape and size to the Home Hub 4, but inside the new model features integrated modems for use with both ADSL and VDSL services, and a full set of four Gigabit network ports plus dual-band Wi-Fi with support for the latest 802.11ac technology.

Read full article @ Techradar

Corsair Neutron XT 240GB SSD Review

The Corsair Neutron XT series SSDs is the latest storage drive to be released by Corsair. The Corsair Neutron XT 240GB drive is powered by a Phison 3110-S10 controller (aka Phison S10), which was just introduced in August 2014. This is the first time that we have seen the Phison 3110 controller on a consumer SSD, so we can't wait to see how Phison's brand new high-performance controller performs. Corsair sent over the Neutron XT 240GB drive to try out ahead of its official release and we gave it a test drive!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid Tower Case Review

Sometimes, it’s nice when things just work perfectly. Take, for example, Elsa’s spectacular geometric masterpiece of a castle in the movie “Frozen” that I am sure so many of you are familiar with. Not only was the castle beautiful but, for Elsa, it was the perfect get away from the judgment that the townsfolk of her village were giving her when she could not control her magic. Personally, I thought her magical ice powers and the way the entire ice castle came together were incredible. I am sure it took a large amount of computing power just to render that scene alone.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Fuji X100T Review

Compact cameras with large sensors are very popular at the moment, while those such as the X100 series with its fixed length lens have a smaller, more niche, audience but are still very much admired. Fuji cameras in particular have proven desirable because of their retro styling and controls, impressive hybrid viewfinder and high image quality courtesy of the APS-C sized sensor. The light and (relatively) small size of the camera also make them appealing to street and wedding photographers who wish to take off-the-cuff shots without attracting too much attention. There's also a large sensor with no anti-aliasing (AA) filter, which ensures lots of detail. The latest incarnation in the series is the Fuji X100T, which is very similar to the X100S. It has the same 16 million pixel X-Trans CMOS II sensor and Fujinon 23mm (35mm equivalent) f/2 lens.

Read full article @ Techradar

GIGABYTE Launches X99M-Gaming 5: Micro-ATX for Haswell-E

One noted trend in computing is the desire for more compute in a smaller space. Imagine mixing High Performance Computing with Small Form Factors, if such a thing could be possible without tons of heat or extreme fan noise/cooling. Haswell-E is the peak of multithreaded throughput on the consumer platform, and the choices for small systems based on this CPU line are limited to custom system integrators or micro-ATX motherboards for home builds. At present there are three micro-ATX X99 motherboards on the market, and GIGABYTE becomes the forth by entering the fray with the X99M-Gaming 5.

Read full article @ Anandtech

How to Enable VMware VAAI and Install NetApp Plugin on ESXi

VAAI stands for VMware APIs Array Integration (for vSphere Storage). VAAI is also referred to as hardware acceleration (or hardware offload APIs), which are a set of APIs to enable communication between VMware vSphere ESXi hosts and storage devices. This APIs are enabled on the ESXi host to offload certain storage operations to the storage [] Read More: How to Enable VMware VAAI and Install NetApp Plugin on ESXi

Read full article @ The Geek Stuff

MSI X99S Gaming 7 Motherboard Review

In our ongoing coverage of Intel's enthusiast-oriented X99 LGA2011-3 platform, we are very pleased to bring you our very first review of one of MSI's popular Gaming Series motherboards. This product line has been on the market for a fair number of years now, and as its name implies, it is focused on the particular needs of gamers. The model that we are focusing on today is the X99S Gaming 7, which falls just below the flagship X99S Gaming 9 and X99S XPOWER AC in MSI's X99 motherboard lineup.

When compared to the $470 ASUS X99 Deluxe and the $440 EVGA X99 Classified that we have reviewed thus far, the MSI X99S Gaming 7 is downright affordable at around $315. What do you lose in exchange for that $100+ rebate? In practical terms, not as much as you would expect. Although this motherboard features four PCI-E x16 slots, it is limited to 3-way CrossFire/SLI due to the fact that some PCI-E lanes are being diverted in order to expand this model's high-speed storage capabilities. Given the microscopic amount of users who would ever even consider a four graphics card setup, this seems like a worthwhile trade-off to us...especially since that's about the only obvious shortcoming.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

NVIDIA Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA) Performance

NVIDIA today released GeForce Game Ready Driver 344.75 WHQL drivers and with the driver comes support for Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA). MFAA is an implementation of Anti-Aliasing (AA) that NVIDIA hopes will replace MSAA in the years to come. MSAA is one of the oldest and most popular forms of AA. MSAA removes jagged edges that increases graphic quality, however it does cause a decrease in system performance. NVIDIA thought that this is something that could be improved and came up with a new solution on the new Maxwell GPU series...

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Android Lollipop Update Hands-On With Benchmarks

NVIDIA gave us early access to the Android Lollipop update and we’ve been poking around on it with our SHIELD Tablet since.

Some of the changes are subtle, but others are more significant and definitely give the tablet a different look and feel over the original Android KitKat release. There’s more to Lollipop than just tweaks to the UI, however. Animations have been optimized, there’s a new notification area, new graphics APIs for advanced gaming, Android Runtime (ART) for better responsiveness, and several other improvements that should enhance battery life and security as well.

To see how Lollipop impacted the SHIELD Tablet’s performance, we ran a few quick benchmarks fo course as well...

Read full article @ HotHardware

QNAP TurboNAS TS-653 Pro NAS Server Review

I don't think that there's a single person who can deny that network attached storage devices are getting more popular by the day and the reason i say this is not the increased sales manufacturers are seeing nor the number of brand new models they roll out every once a while no. I'm saying this based on the increasing number of people asking us (either live or via email and through social media) for such reviews. Well i can't really say this comes as a surprise to us, i mean what's not to like about NAS servers? They are small, pack quite a punch, use less electricity than a halogen light bulb, produce low noise levels, offer a complete array of applications right out of the box and can even give you enough space for up to 10 drives (SMB models) which as we speak translates to roughly 80-100TB of storage capacity (thanks to the new 8-10TB drives). Today we'll be checking out one of the best models currently available in the marker for SMB (and home) use, the latest 6 bay TurboNAS TS-653 Pro-8G NAS server by QNAP.

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.

Currently QNAP offers the most complete lineup of NAS servers in the market and the brand new x53Pro series are amongst the best they've rolled out from their factory to date both in terms of specifications and features. The x53 Pro line consists out of 4 different models, the dual bay TS-253 Pro, the quad bay TS-453 Pro, the six bay TS-653 Pro and the eight bay TS-853 Pro. All models wear the Intel Celeron CJ1900 2.0GHz quad core processor (burst speed up to 2.41GHz) with 2 or 8GB or DDR3 RAM (we have the 8GB version with us) and a flash DOM of 512MB (the OpenGL 3.0 compatible Intel(R) MESA DRI Bay Trail version 10.0 takes care of the graphics part). The TS-653 Pro also features 4 RJ-45 GbE Ethernet ports, 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports and an HDMI v1.4a video output which enables you to use the device as a media server/player. Well if you wan't to see how it performs read on.

Read full article @ Nikktech

SensoGlove Review

We all know that stories don’t always have a happy ending and when it comes to golfing, that magical story land adventure ends for most of us as soon as the fall hits … or when it becomes too cold (unless you are lucky enough to be south for the winter and can reap golf benefits year round). Either way, for those of you who sit and watch the Golf Channel all winter and await your first tee time somewhere in the spring, you see ads and ads flash by your TV promising you that it can take 5 strokes off your handicap with the simple use of this training DVD, or better yet some club that breaks when you swing poorly. Well, we are here to introduce you to a great gift for every golfer this holiday, the SensoGlove!

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review

What’s the biggest problem (terrible pun intended) with just about all flagship smartphones these days? They’re all kind of huge. We don’t even need to discuss the phablet category with devices like the Nexus 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus to discover this issue, as even “mainstream” devices like the Galaxy S5 and the new Moto X are north of the 5-inch range for screen size.

Sure, there are some smaller smartphones out there, but you end up sacrificing a lot more than just screen size when you opt for these mid-tier devices. You get slower processors, less memory and worse cameras. Sony knows your pain and that’s where the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is meant to slot into the marketplace.

Read full article @ MEGATech

Step By Step Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) LAMP Server Setup

In around 15 minutes, the time it takes to install Ubuntu Server Edition, you can have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server up and ready to go.

Read full article @ Ubuntu Geek

TCL Roku TV Review

TCL Roku TV is now on sale and proves to be a natural fit for the No. 1 Chinese television manufacturer's expansion into the Western marketplace. It joins the company, unfamiliar to many consumers outside of China, with the well-established Roku streaming platform.

Read full article @ Techradar

Tesoro Tizona Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

In the end, the Tesoro Tizona is a well made, good looking keyboard that has great physical flexibility. Unfortunately, there are only three extra keys and no software. While the main keyboard is at a competitive ~$70 dollars, the number pad is at a ~$40 premium (for $30 more you can have the main keyboard). This brings the total to ~$110 dollars, which is still surprisingly competitive (keeping in mind the quality and versatility). As one of the lower priced keyboards by Tesoro, it hold up well among its brethren and if the quality stands the test of time, it also compares to many really big name brand mechanical keyboards. As a fairly new company, I think Tesoro will be going far if this keeps up.

Read full article @ OCC

TRENDnet TPL-407E2K Powerline 500 AV Adapter Starter Kit Review

When it comes to ways one can connect their computers to the Internet, most people know of two ways; one being through the standard wired LAN port, and the other wirelessly through a Wi-Fi router.

These two options are most prevalent in today's computing world, for both consumers and businesses. We know that wired connections are the best in terms of overall speed and latencies, those who play online multiplayer games can attest to this, as they need lower ping rates (which wired connections provide) to have the smoothest online gaming experience. Those also streaming HD media through their network can also attest to wired connections offering the best speed and latencies, this means less buffering and less lag.

On the flip side with Wi-Fi, it's the convenience of no wires that attracts people to use a wireless router instead, so that we can connect to the Internet virtually anywhere our home with a Wi-Fi adapter. No one wants to be running 100 or 200-FT Ethernet cables to the next room in order to have Internet, I used to do that back in the day and it was both inconvenient and downright ugly.

Read full article @ ModSynergy.com