I wish everyone here a very Merry Christmas



Here today's reviews and articles:

12 AMD AM1 / Intel Bay Trail motherboard review, budget foundation
Cooler Master Nepton 240M Review
Cooler Masters Silencio 652S case reviewed
Cougar 700K Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Cyberpower Fangbook Edge 4K Laptop Review
HGST Deskstar NAS 6 TB Review
Lemur Monitors BlueDriver Bluetooth OBD-II Scan Tool
Lenovo Horizon 2 Review
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower Case Review
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Review
Silicon Power Mobile X31 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
Spot the differences: Gigabyte motherboard revisions present markedly different test results
Synology DiskStation DS415+
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate AIO CPU Cooler Review

12 AMD AM1 / Intel Bay Trail motherboard review, budget foundation

In April AMD introduced its AM1-platform which is meant to serve as a basis for budget PC's. Intel meanwhile introduced the desktop version of their Bay Trail chips at the beginning of this year, better known as the next generation of Atom-processors. Click here for a comparison test between these two platforms. In this article we discuss and compare 12 affordable motherboards for each platform.

AMD's AM1-platform is a budget platform allowing you to create a very affordable system. While the platform was mainly developed for upcoming markets such as India and South-America, it is also being sold in Europe and the US. Intel created the desktop version of the Bay Trail processors with the same purpose, which was originally designed for tablets and other mobile devices. Both the AM1 and Bay Trail-D should allow you to put together a complete system for less than 200 euros.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Cooler Master Nepton 240M Review

So what makes the 240M stand out from the others? The longer, heavier FEP tubes on the 240M allow flexibility when installing the radiator. And those thumb screws - wow, they really make the installation process much easier. You can quickly get the radiator and fans in position without fumbling around dropping screws into the case. The new retained screws on the pump mount make installing the pump a breeze. And of course, the new Silencio 120mm PWM fans are up to the task of moving plenty of air while not sounding like a leaf blower. The splitter power cable for the fans also makes it nice to control both fans from one fan header, and it provides for a cleaner cable routing since you can run the fan cables and the splitter behind the motherboard tray and keep them out of sight.

Read full article @ OCC

Cooler Masters Silencio 652S case reviewed

This $100 enclosure from Cooler Master can house an ATX motherboard along with a generous assortment of storage drives and and cooling contraptions. It's also got acoustic foam a go-go, and it ships with plastic covers to block up unused vents. Is it the case to get for enthusiasts with golden ears?

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Cougar 700K Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Cougar is a company that we have known for mainly power supplies and cases. With the popularity of gaming and eSports it seems they want it get it on it and they have started producing gaming peripherals. From the looks of it they are taking it very seriously with some pretty impressive keyboards and mice. Today we will be taking a look at their new flagship gaming keyboard the 700K. This keyboard has a ton of great features some of them include an aluminum chassis, Cherry MX mechanical keys, 6 programmable G-keys, three different profiles and some pretty sweet backlighting. Will this keyboard get you thinking about Cougar when it comes to gaming peripherals? Read on as we find out.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Cyberpower Fangbook Edge 4K Laptop Review

The killer feature with the Cyberpower Fangbook Edge 4K, as the name suggests, is the inclusion of a 4K display with a mighty resolution of 3,840×2,160 pixels. Adding a 4K display to a regular Fangbook Edge laptop bumps up the price (https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/LandingPages/FangbookEdge/) by £90 from £1175 to £1265 inc VAT and delivery. The rest of the specification is high end with a Core i7-4870HQ quad core processor, Nvidia GTX 970M graphics, 32GB of DDR3L RAM, three USB 3.0 ports and Intel 802.11ac WI-Fi.

Read full article @ KitGuru

HGST Deskstar NAS 6 TB Review

The increasing affordability of SSDs has put a strain on the traditional market for hard drive vendors. However, hard drives continue to remain the storage medium of choice for applications where capacity and cost factors outweigh performance requirements. Thanks to the rapid growth in the SMB / SOHO / consumer NAS market, new opportunities have opened up for the HDD vendors. All the major players have lineups catering to this market segment. Western Digital was the first to introduce a 6 TB drive in this space, and Seagate joined in recently with a souped-up Enterprise NAS HDD recently. Today, we will take a look at the highest capacity version in HGSTs Deskstar NAS family.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Lemur Monitors BlueDriver Bluetooth OBD-II Scan Tool

Uh oh. The check engine light (CEL) came on again. Well, at least that’s we used to call it before it became more widely known as the malfunctional indicator lamp (MIL). I suppose that only makes sense, since the malfunction can easily extend well beyond the confines of the engine itself.

Whether you want to call it the CEL or the MIL, it can end up being a pricey endeavor making yet another trip to the auto mechanic or dealership to get it checked out and to get the code cleared. And even when the check engine light isn’t on, there could be something wrong. Thankfully, there are affordable, consumer-facing devices that can diagnose many of these car troubles and one of the most convenient is the BlueDriver by Lemur Vehicle Monitors. It uses Bluetooth!

Read full article @ MEGATech

Lenovo Horizon 2 Review

The Lenovo Horizon 2 is nothing if not ambitious. This Windows 8.1 all-in-one PC packs a ton of features into its massive 27-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 touchscreen display. With a screen that size, you start to get into the pricier class of all-in-one computers. The Horizon 2 is priced at $1,499.99 (about £1,499, about AU$1850.31), which is around the same price as similar systems.An anti-glare matte touchscreen display offers plenty of real estate for work and entertainment. Plus, the Horizon 2 automatically switches to the HDMI-in input when a device such as a Blu-ray player is plugged in, even when the main system isn't powered up.Lenovo picked a screen touting excellent color for video and gaming, with wide viewing angles. Although the Horizon 2 generally looks decent, my main issues are with the power and volume buttons on the right side. They are a little too small and feel kind of cheap. There's also a millimeter gap between the screen and the frame where the power LED shines through, which is the one fly in the ointment.A wireless mouse and keyboard set comes with the system, but both need some getting used to. While the slim aluminum keyboard looks sleek (and has a nice weighted top), keys – such as the Caps Lock, Tab, Right Shift, and Backspace – are all half sized. Furthermore, the Home keys are arranged in a single slim column.

Read full article @ Techradar

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower Case Review

Phanteks is no stranger to building excellent computer hardware enthusiast system cases. Today we are looking at its Micro Tower Chassis. Designing and building a good computer chassis is easy to do when you have a lot of room to work with, but how does Phanteks go about it when space is at a premium It makes more space.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Review

We applaud companies that are willing to push the envelope with innovative hardware. Sometimes their efforts aren't rewarded by consumers, but unique designs that attempt to blaze new trails in existing markets are always interesting to say the least. In a way, the Galaxy Note Edge fits this description. Similar to 4K curved televisions, one has to wonder if the world truly needs a flagship smartphone with 160 extra pixels along its right edge. But as was the case when the original Note launched and many experts shook their heads in disapproval, the Note Edge could strike a chord with consumers and usher in a new wave of similar devices. Time will tell...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Silicon Power Mobile X31 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

For anyone who has ever lost his or her phone, or just the thought of losing something that is so crucial in your everyday life, is not exactly fun. Unfortunately, this happened to me recently. On a gloomy Wednesday afternoon, I lost my Samsung Galaxy S3. For me, losing the physical phone itself was not the most annoying part. Rather, it was losing the messages/pictures/videos/contacts that were a nuisance to try to get again, if it was even possible. There were countless amounts of pictures and memories I shared with friends and family on the device. At this point, you may be wondering, why did I not back up my device? As luck would have had it, the part that brightened the day ever so slightly was just prior to me losing my phone, I had received the Silicon Power Mobile X31 32GB to review. Up until this point, I had completely forgotten I have previously plugged the Micro USB flash drive into my phone, and stored all my important data onto it. What are the chances? I was only reminded of this only after I got a new smartphone, and needed to figure out what was the best way to get certain pictures back onto it. With a sigh of relief, one of the biggest questions that came up when I was figuring this out was, how useful could the OTG (On-The-Go) feature be? Seeing that I had both the Mobile X31 and my new smartphone in hand, what better opportunity is there to put it to the test with file transfers and standard APH Networks testing? Let us see how fast and easy data transfer can be with its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 capabilities and OTG support. Read on to find out more! (Also: Losing your phone is still not fun.)

Read full article @ APH Networks

Spot the differences: Gigabyte motherboard revisions present markedly different test results

Several days ago, one of our (Dutch) forum visitors asked about a Gigabyte motherboard with difference characteristics than the original model, and visible differences from the photo displayed by the shop where it was purchased. A bit of Googling and browsing through Gigabyte's website shows that the Taiwanese manufacturer makes new revisions of quite a few of its motherboards, mostly in the budget segment. For us reason to do some more research and buy and test the motherboards. The results are more than a little remarkable...

Gigabyte has been making new revisions of its motherboards, using the original product name, since time immemorial. This is nothing special, nor anything the manufacturer is less than open about. New motherboards are easily identified by the addition to their name: Rev. 2.0 or Rev 3.0 for example. However, lately these revisions appear to be primarily instigated by cost considerations. In the boards we tested, we observed very clear differences, such as a lowering of the number of CPU power supply phases and in one case even the removal of a secondary BIOS chip.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Synology DiskStation DS415+

Synology recently introduced the DS415+. This four-bay NAS mostly targets SMB users and is the first to use an Intel Rangeley quad-core CPU, which allows for very high performance in every possible usage scenario.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate AIO CPU Cooler Review

Thermaltake currently has three key models in the Thermaltake Water 3.0 All-in-One (AIO) liquid cooling solution product line. The smallest are a pair of 120mm radiator coolers called the called the Water 3.0 Performer and Water 3.0 Pro. The next step up from there is the Water 3.0 Extreme S with a 240mm radiator and then sitting at the top of the product stack is the Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate that is one of the very few kits on the market that features a massive 360mm radiator!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews