Here today's reviews and articles, including 15-Way Open vs. Closed Source NVIDIA/AMD Linux GPU Comparison, Video footage from inside AMD boardroom meeting, Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx Windows 8 Tablet Review, Seagate Barracuda 4TB Hard Drive - Set up in Windows 8. and takeMS LumX 4GB USB Flash Drive Review



15-Way Open vs. Closed Source NVIDIA/AMD Linux GPU Comparison @ Phoronix

This testing merges the independent AMD and NVIDIA Linux testing into a single viewable spread for showing off the open-source and closed-source Linux graphics driver performance for discrete NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards.

The AMD Radeon Linux testing consisted of a mixture of AMD Radeon HD 5000 and Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards. As mentioned in the earlier article and numerous other Phoronix pieces, the open-source Linux graphics driver support for the very latest Radeon HD 7000 "Southern Islands" graphics cards is still a work-in-progress and maturing within the new "RadeonSI" driver. Radeon HD 7000 testing will come separately due to the less than complete OpenGL support at this time. For Radeon HD 7000 series users the best bet right now is just using the proprietary AMD Catalyst graphics card. With the Radeon HD 4000 series GPUs and older not being supported by the mainline Catalyst driver and the legacy Catalyst driver not working well on the latest Ubuntu Linux release, this limited the AMD testing to the HD 5000/6000 families.

Read more: 15-Way Open vs. Closed Source NVIDIA/AMD Linux GPU Comparison @ Phoronix

Video footage from inside AMD boardroom meeting @ KitGuru

One of the most closely guarded secrets any company possesses is the knowledge of how it will do in the coming quarter. The kind of meeting where targets are set, results analysed and predictions made are some of the most guarded on the planet. KitGuru has managed to obtain footage from inside such a meeting.

Read more: Video footage from inside AMD boardroom meeting @ KitGuru

Spring Storm Preparedness - A Look At Energizer & Maglite LED Flashlights @ Legit Reviews

To light up a small room we turned to Energizer and the Weatheready 360 Degree LED Area Lantern that runs $16.88 shipped. Not a bad price for a three-mode, waterproof four-LED lantern that comes with three Energizer Max Alkaline AA batteries! It can also run on three D batteries, which is nice as in an emergency who knows what batteries you'll be able to get. This lantern has three lighting modes; 55-lumen white high, 28-lumen white low, and an amber nightlight...

Read more: Spring Storm Preparedness - A Look At Energizer & Maglite LED Flashlights @ Legit Reviews

Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx Windows 8 Tablet Review @ ThinkComputers.org

We have seen quite a few Windows 8 tablets emerge since CES. These tablets gives users the full Windows 8 experience on a slate device that they can easily take with them. Microsofts own Surface Pro has a very expensive price tag of $899. For those not looking to shell out that much money for a Windows 8 tablet experience Lenovo has a few different options. Today we are taking a look at their IdeaTab Lynx, which at $499 is a much less expensive option. It features an Intel Atom Z2760 (1.8 GHz) processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory and a 64GB solid state drive under the hood. On the exterior you have an 11.6-inch 5-point touch IPS panel with a resolution of 1366 x 768. Most importantly this tablet runs the full version of Windows 8 making it a great solution for those looking to be productive on the road.

Read more: Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx Windows 8 Tablet Review @ ThinkComputers.org

XSPC RAZOR GTX680 SLI Waterblock Review @ Vortez

We recently reviewed the XSPC RayStorm 750 RS360 which offers an entry point into a customised watercooling loop yet performs extremely well despite it's budget cost. To take the kit one step further we will today be looking at adding a couple of SLI blocks into the mix to improve cooling on two NVIDIA GTX680's.

While XSPC do a wide range of waterblocks, it is typically the CPU and then GPU that see the most benefits from watercooling. This has never been more important thanks to throttling of graphics cards depending on GPU temperatures, particularly with NVIDIA's GPU Boost which has direct correlation between temperature and available 'boost' speed.

Read more: XSPC RAZOR GTX680 SLI Waterblock Review @ Vortez

Seagate 500GB Laptop Thin Solid State Hybrid Drive Review @ Bigbruin.com

Seagate has introduced two generations of their Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) which combined the larger storage capacity of a traditional hard drive with the faster transfer rates of a solid state drive. This fusion of technology offered an improvement over standard drives and moved performance closer to a SSD. The third generation is available now, and Seagate is calling this generation the Laptop SSHD or Laptop Thin SSHD, depending on the thickness of the unit.

A few physical changes to the drive were made with this new generation. For starters, the thickness has gone from 9.7mm down to either 9.5mm or 7.0mm. In addition, they increased the cache size from 32MB to 64MB, while they have kept the NAND flash size at 8GB. One other change is that they slowed the drive down from 7200RPM to 5400RPM. On the surface, this change raises some concerns as to the speed of this drive. The benchmarks included in this review will show the facts.

Read more: Seagate 500GB Laptop Thin Solid State Hybrid Drive Review @ Bigbruin.com

Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx Review @ TechReviewSource.com

The Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx is a Windows 8 tablet that offers good battery life and a large 11.6-inch display. It has 64GB of storage, 2GB of RAM and a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 CPU that provides solid performance. The price, however, is probably a bit too high for our liking.

Read more: Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx Review @ TechReviewSource.com

Thermaltake Urban S71 Review @ Vortez

Having already looked at the Urban S21 and been impressed by Thermaltake’s new venture into the silent computer chassis sector today we are going to be looking at a model at the opposite end of the spectrum. S21 is designed for budget conscious enthusiasts but the S71 is the higher-end offering within the series and has a respective feature-set.

Urban S71 is a full-tower chassis with minimalist styling which is typical of a case, of this calibre. S71 can accommodate a plethora of high-end hardware and comes with three cooling fans; all configured via a handy two-speed fan controller. The real question is can S71 compete with other popular offerings which currently dominate the market?

Read more: Thermaltake Urban S71 Review @ Vortez

Func MS-3 Gaming Mouse and Surface 1030 XL Review @ Madshrimps

After a lot of waiting, we are happy to see the new products from Func, which include the MS-3 gaming mouse with an ergonomic shape, but also the revised Surface 1030 mouse pad, coming in two different sizes.

Read more: Func MS-3 Gaming Mouse and Surface 1030 XL Review @ Madshrimps

AMD sheds light on Kaveri's uniform memory architecture @ The Tech Report

At the Fusion Developer Summit last June, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster teased Kaveri, AMD's next-generation APU due later this year. Among other things, Papermaster revealed that Kaveri will be based on the Steamroller architecture and that it will be the first AMD APU with fully shared memory.

Last week, AMD shed some more light on Kaveri's uniform memory architecture, which now has a snazzy marketing name: heterogeneous uniform memory access, or hUMA for short.

Read more: AMD sheds light on Kaveri's uniform memory architecture @ The Tech Report

Spire X2 120mm PWM Fan Review @ Hi Tech Legion

The Spire X2 120mm PWM fan runs between 600 and 1500 RPM and is practically inaudible with noise levels between 10 and 22 dBA. The X2 120mm fan is capable of pushing 62.53 CFM at 1500 RPM while producing 1.74mm H2O of static air pressure. To further reduce noise levels the X2 features removable silicone rubber pads on each of the screw holes. Using their Nano Tech Bearing technology they can increase the fan blade size and achieve a MTBF of 70,000 hours. The X2 120mm PWM fan features four blue LEDS. In addition red LED lighting and 140mm, 92mm, and 80mm sizes are available.

Read more: Spire X2 120mm PWM Fan Review @ Hi Tech Legion

Seagate Barracuda 4TB Hard Drive - Set up in Windows 8 @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today we take a look at what the Seagate Barracuda 4TB drive has to offer in a selection of tests while also finding out how easy (or hard) it is to set up a large capacity drive like this in Windows 8.

Read more: Seagate Barracuda 4TB Hard Drive - Set up in Windows 8 @ HardwareHeaven.com

Velodyne vFree Bluetooth Headphones Review @ TopReviewShop

Following our recently reviewed vTrue Studio Monitor headphones, Velodyne has continued their onslaught of new and innovative models with the vFree On-Ear Bluetooth headphones. The vFree boasts a couple of unique features – aptX codec support and customization by using personalized skins available from Velodyne. At $299 retail price, they certainly don't fit into the bargain-price category but rather fit into the upper echelon of Bluetooth headset offerings. Let's see if they are up to the task to rival other top-tier Bluetooth headphone sets.

Read more: Velodyne vFree Bluetooth Headphones Review @ TopReviewShop

ASUS VivoBook X202E Laptop @ Hardware Secrets

The ASUS VivoBook X202E is a compact laptop (a.k.a. netbook) with a 11.6" touchscreen, Core i3-3217U CPU, 500 GB hard drive, and 4 GB of RAM. It comes with Windows 8. Let´s take a look at this small notebook.

Read more: ASUS VivoBook X202E Laptop @ Hardware Secrets

The Ultimate HTC One Accessory Pack Review @ TestFreaks

I got a new phone if you didn’t notice yet, it’s the HTC One and it’s a great phone. When it comes to accessories for something like the HTC One Mobile Fun is the place to go and they’ve put out their very own what you might call a starter pack for the new HTC One owner aptly named The Ultimate HTC One Accessory Pack. This accessory pack contains pretty much everything you need to get going with your HTC one at home and on the go. This pack contains six items if interest including two of what I consider the most important items, a case and a screen protector (actually they give you five screen protectors!). In the pack you’ll find a desk stand, car charger, portable desk stand, case, car holder and screen protectors. It might truly be The Ultimate HTC One Accessory Pack and best of all it’s inexpensive at about about $30 for everything. There’s more than enough stuff in here to get your started using and enjoying your new HTC One…

Read more: The Ultimate HTC One Accessory Pack Review @ TestFreaks

takeMS LumX 4GB USB Flash Drive Review @ Madshrimps

The new LumX USB Flash Drives from takeMS put style, elegance ahead product performance, at a decent price. The 4GB variant we have just reviewed is able to store data with a speed of 5.599kbytes/s and read with about 14.021kbytes/s; the manufacturer also puts at our disposal 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models, for people which need more storage space on the go.

Read more: takeMS LumX 4GB USB Flash Drive Review @ Madshrimps