Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

15-Way Linux OS Comparison Shows Mixed High-Performing Linux Distributions
An AnandTech Round Table with ASUS: 10 Years of the Republic of Gamers
Assassin's Creed - Syndicate: tested with 23 graphics cards
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact Review
ASUSTOR AS3102T NAS Server Review
Cooler Master Xornet II Mouse Review
E-Blue K820 Professional Gaming Combo Review
Fractal Design Node 202 mini-ITX Chassis Review
G.Skill Trident Z 32GB DDR4-3000 Dual-Channel Memory Kit Review
Install Kodi 16.0 on Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf)
Late-2015 Dell XPS 13 Review: Refreshed With Skylake
NZXT HUE+ lighting-system Review
Patriot Viper Elite 3200MHz CL16 PVE48G320C6KGY 2x8GB DDR4 Review: Overclocking for All
QNAP TAS-268 QTS and Android Combo NAS Review
Reeven Justice CPU Cooler Review
SilverStone Strider Platinum ST55F-PT 550W Power Supply Review
The MX Toolbox: Big Tools for a Little Distro
XFX XTS 1000W Platinum PSU Review

15-Way Linux OS Comparison Shows Mixed High-Performing Linux Distributions

Succeeding January's 10-way Linux distribution battle is now a 15-way Linux distribution comparison on an Intel Xeon "Skylake" system with Radeon R7 graphics. Distributions part of this Linux OS performance showdown include Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Antergos, Sabayon, Void Linux, Zenwalk, KaOS, Clear Linux, and Alpine Linux.

Throughout all testing, the same system was used for benchmarking. This system was built around a Xeon E3-1280 v5 Skylake CPU with MSI C236A Workstation motherboard. Thanks to MSI Computer for making this system comparison possible.

Read full article @ Phoronix

An AnandTech Round Table with ASUS: 10 Years of the Republic of Gamers

Earlier this year before CES 2016, we approached ASUS with an idea: as the Republic of Gamers brand is now in its 10th year of operation, we wanted to get together and discuss the feeling and utility of ROG a decade on, record it, have a question and answer session from our readers, and publish the video. The Republic of Gamers brand from ASUS has been difficult to ignore, both from an engineering perspective when it comes to motherboards and graphics cards, but also the origin story, integration with users, and the expansion out to many different product lines. I felt it was important to hear from the source, and see what makes the mind tick of some of the integral cogs behind the ROG experience.

For long time AnandTech readers, you will know that very few people in this industry stay in one position – in recent times, Dustin has moved to Corsair, Vivek now works with Razer, and Anand works at Apple. I started as Senior Motherboard Editor back in 2011, when my predecessor Rajinder Gill took a position within ASUS’ technical team. His predecessor, Gary Key, is also with ASUS and currently sits as Director of Marketing for ASUS USA.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Assassin's Creed - Syndicate: tested with 23 graphics cards

Back in November Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for the PC, the newest game in the long-running series. The game is developed by Ubisoft Quebec, one of the in-house developers of the publisher, and takes place in London during the late nineteenth century. We tested this game with 23 graphics cards at Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD.

The London of 1868 has been taken over by the Templar Order and you play as the Frye twins, who are trying to end the Templar's reign at the request of certain people. They do this by killing assigned targets, as usual with these series.

The previous Assassin's Creed in the main series were all developed by Ubisoft Montreal, sometimes in collaboration with other development studios. Syndicate is the first game in the series developed by Ubisoft Quebec.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact Review

Back in 2013 the ASUS Republic of Gamers team brought us their first Mini-ITX based motherboard under the Intel Z87 chipset. Since then we’ve seen the Maximus Impact pass through another two generations. Their first attempt was mightily impressive and last year’s Maximus VII Impact built on the success of the debut – today we are to look at the third instalment to see what improvements have been made and to observe whether the ROG team has made even more refinements.

Maximus VIII Impact is ASUS’ latest Intel Z170 motherboard bearing the Mini-ITX form factor. This board is designed to target both the enthusiast and gamer who favour compact system configurations. Although small in size, Impact is packed with innovative features which can be found on full-sized ROG motherboards. Impact contains an all-digital power design, comes with a premium audio solution, advanced overclocking features and even a case fan extension card – proving that size, really doesn’t matter.

Read full article @ Vortez

ASUSTOR AS3102T NAS Server Review

Roughly two weeks ago a company manager approached to inform me that our NAS reviews although quite thorough especially in terms of tests and OS showcasing lacked in-depth product description which in turn ment that people just wouldn't know what NAS servers can be used for. Personally i don't think that our readers need us to point obvious things in our reviews but we have mentioned numerous times the various tasks people can perform with NAS servers including the most popular ones such as using them as email/web/download/visualization/VoIP/media/home automation servers and as surveillance network video recorders (not to mention that showcasing the OS clears these things). Perhaps there are some people out there who'd also like us to point out that keyboards are used to type, mice are used to move the cursor on their screen and hard disk drives are used to store data but at least for us that feels wrong (besides i sincerely believe that if you're reading these lines you know exactly what it is you're looking for). Putting that small note aside ASUSTOR recently released their AS31xxT NAS line and since some of you out there wanted to see just how it'd do against the competition we got the 2bay model to test.


Founded in 2011, ASUSTOR Inc., a subsidiary of ASUSTeK Computer Inc., is a leading innovator and provider of private cloud storage (network attached storage) and video surveillance (network video recorder) solutions. ASUSTOR is devoted to providing the world with unparalleled user experiences and the most complete set of network storage solutions possible.

For the new AS3102T NAS ASUSTOR has paired a Intel Celeron N3050 dual-core CPU clocked at 1.6GHz (64-Bit model with 2MB of L2 cache and a burst speed of up to 2.16GHz) with a total of 2GB DDR3L RAM running at 1600MHz (not expandable). Other components include three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI v1.4b port, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port and two internal 3.5" HDD mounts with support for single, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1 modes. Unfortunately by internal we mean that unlike most NAS servers today the AS3102T doesn't feature removable trays so in order to mount the drives you will need to remove the housing. I honestly have no idea as to the why ASUSTOR chose this path this time over but if the AS3102T excels in performance and features i doubt this will be enough to drive away potential buyers.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Cooler Master Xornet II Mouse Review

With the Xornet II, computer users can now customize DPI settings, lift-off distance, and the RGB lighting feature straight from the downloadable Xornet II software. Lift-off distance can also be tuned straight from the mouse without having to use the software. This is a great feature to have especially when changing mouse surfaces. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we will take a look at what the Cooler Master Xornet II optical gaming mouse has in store for us. Let’s go through a quick overview of this product in the next section.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

E-Blue K820 Professional Gaming Combo Review

E-Blue may be a fairly new name to most of our readers, but they’re quickly pushing into new parts of the world with their products and their latest, the E-Blue K820 Professional Gaming Combo certainly caught our attention. There’s a lot of competition in the market right now to make the absolute best budget friendly gaming bundle. With many people investing in their first computers, building on a tight budget, or even just looking for an affordable solution for younger games; especially with the never-ending popularity of Minecraft, it makes sense that there’s a big market for affordable peripherals.

“Our mission is to bring stylish, trendy and high-quality products to the worldwide end-users. We believe that there are many good products in the market but they are in unreasonable price to the end-user and also there exist many low-graded of products with bad quality and in low price to a big group of user. But these two types are not the most desired and demanded to the customers. They desire the products more trendy, under reasonable price and good quality with high durability. This is how e-blue insist to keep such principle as the main mission.” – E-Blue

Read full article @ eTeknix

Fractal Design Node 202 mini-ITX Chassis Review

Fractal Design are one of the best chassis manufacturers in the world, having created a stunning range of products over the years, as well as branching out into the world of PSUs, CPU coolers and more. Today they look set to dominate the living room, with the release of their Node 202 mini-ITX chassis. What makes this one so special is that it is designed to house a high-end system, but maintains that slim form factor, allowing you to put it under your TV or on your desk with ease; perfect for a gaming system/steambox or a HTPC configuration.

“The Node 202 is the ultimate PC case for those looking for a beautifully designed, compact chassis that can house a capable gaming build. This small footprint is an intelligently built unit where extreme detail was placed into the design phase to get every line and spec in perfect harmony. With both horizontal and vertical orientation possibilities, the Node 202 can be placed anywhere in the house. The sleek design makes it very attractive next to the TV in the living room or on your desk in the office.”

Read full article @ eTeknix

G.Skill Trident Z 32GB DDR4-3000 Dual-Channel Memory Kit Review

Featuring 32GB on two 16GB DIMMs, G.Skill's F4-3000C15D-32GTZ offers the ultimate capacity for motherboards that can't accept four modules. Do these high density modules offer the performance or overclocking capability of their lower-capacity competitors?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Install Kodi 16.0 on Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf)

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media center for playing videos, music, pictures, games, and more. Kodi runs on Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet.

Read full article @ Ubuntu Geek

Late-2015 Dell XPS 13 Review: Refreshed With Skylake

Dell recently refreshed its popular XPS 13 with new hardware to bring it up to date with current CPU and storage offerings. The updated model now sports a Skylake-based Intel processor and a Samsung PM951 NVMe solid state drive, plus a few minor tweaks to its already impressive design. When the current iteration of the Dell XPS 13 debuted back in January of last year, it was nearly unrivaled in terms of its power to size ratio, and overall value in the space. The ultrabook market has heated-up a lot since then though, and the XPS 13 has some stiff competition at the moment...

Read full article @ HotHardware

NZXT HUE+ lighting-system Review

So with 40 LED’s in the kit, what does the HUE+ offer in terms of features? What can we do with the LED’s?

Dual-channel illumination with support for up to 40 LEDs per channel
Numerous lighting modes and countless customization options
Digitally controlled with CAM software
Simple and versatile installation with daisy-chained design
Smart Lighting mode enables lights to react to changing PC conditions
Visualize PC’s sound output with Audio mode

Yes, forget about just adding the LED-strips, setting a colour and forget about it. True, this is still an option but honestly that would be a waste of a versatile product. These LED-strips are controllable via the HUE+ coupled with the CAM-software, the same we saw in our Kraken-review. Want to let your PC change color of the LED’s if it starts to get hot? No problems. Want to have it emit a green light while the fps is over 60 fps and then switch to red when it drops below 60? No problem. Want to simulate candle light or why not have it react to music? Again, no problems at all.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Patriot Viper Elite 3200MHz CL16 PVE48G320C6KGY 2x8GB DDR4 Review: Overclocking for All

Using fast DDR4 memory was a privilege only a few could experience due to high cost initially but supply outpacing demand finally resulted in reasonable prices.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

QNAP TAS-268 QTS and Android Combo NAS Review

In today’s review, I am taking a look at a NAS that comes with a twist that we previously haven’t seen out-of-the-box. I’m talking about QNAP’s TAS-268 NAS which is a 2-bay hybrid NAS that runs both QNAP’s QTS and Android at the same time. The TAS-268 doesn’t just have a twist in the operating system, the physical form also takes a different approach than most NAS on the market.

At the core, the QNAP TAS-268 is a normal NAS with the function that you would expect from such a unit. It doesn’t come with the most power processor, but in return, it also comes with a low price tag despite all the functionality. It is built around an ARM 1.1 GHz dual-core processor and comes with 2GB DDR3 memory. It also features an onboard 4GB flash memory to be used by the Android system. While this doesn’t sound like much, it should be plenty for this device’s functions.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Reeven Justice CPU Cooler Review

Last month we took a look at Reeven’s Okeanos CPU Cooler, which performed quite well. It was a dual tower cooler, today we will be taking a look at their single-tower Justice (RC-1204) CPU cooler. This cooler features a wider aluminum fin surface that carries heat away faster, six 6mm nickel-plated copper heatpipes, and a 120 mm PWM fan. From the looks of it installation should be pretty simple with this cooler as well. Let’s jump in and see if the Justice can keep our Core i7-4790K nice and cool!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

SilverStone Strider Platinum ST55F-PT 550W Power Supply Review

Silverstone is one of the biggest PC component manufacturers in the world. Every year they launch a colossal amount of products that span a huge range of hardware and usage scenarios. They’ve got an ever-growing range of connectors, cables, fans, filters, I/O devices, chassis, coolers and more. Of course, the one that’s most important to us today is that they also make some of the industries best PSU hardware. Their new Strider Platinum ST55F-PT 550W really caught our interest, as not only does it pack 550W of power, it also has 80 Plus Platinum efficiency, fully module cables, high-quality components, and a hybrid/passive cooling feature, but it’s also incredibly compact for a PSU with these hardware specifications, making it a promising solution for compact system builds.

“As desktop computers continue to advance toward ever more efficient and smaller designs, SilverStone is helping to drive the efficiency movement by releasing the Strider Platinum series of power supplies. Created to be the smallest fully modular ATX power supplies with 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency, they are also incredibly quiet with the ability to run in fanless mode. If the loading condition is below 20%, the fan in the power supply can remain off for silent operation during idle or low powered computing activities. Other great features inherited from previous Strider series include ±3% regulation, powerful single +12V rail, 24/7 continuous power output, and multiple PCI-E cables. For those looking to build highly efficient systems in small footprints, the Strider Platinum is definitely the best choice.”

Read full article @ eTeknix

The MX Toolbox: Big Tools for a Little Distro

Continuing what I hinted on in my MX-15 review. MX Tools, an interesting little box of goodies for the enterpreneuring geek. If they happen to be using the said distro, that is, but then, there's no reason why they shouldn't. Or rather, here's another reason why they should. This latest OCS-Mag article of mine elaborates on that most profoundly. Take a look.

Read full article @ OCS-Mag

XFX XTS 1000W Platinum PSU Review

If you are shopping for a new high grade power supply then there are many options available on the market this year. We were recently sent the XFX XTS 1000W to review – currently one of the least expensive Platinum grade power supplies available on the market today, available at only £150 inc vat.

Read full article @ KitGuru