Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

20 of the Worst PC Setups – August 2015
AMD Linux Graphics: The Latest Open-Source RadeonSI Driver Moves On To Smacking Catalyst
ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Review
Colorful iGame GTX 980 Ti 6GB
Complete Guide to Workstations Part 4
Core M-based Compute Stick coming early next year
DeepCool Quanta DQ1250 1250W PSU Unboxing & Overview
G.Skill Trident Z 16GB DDR4-3000 (F4-3000C15D-16GTZ)
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 Preview
Intel 6th-Gen Core 'Skylake' processors officially introduced and optimized for Windows 10
Intel Unleashes Onslaught Of Skylake CPUs For Next Gen Notebooks, Convertibles And Compute Sticks
Intel: No plans for a socketed Skylake with eDRAM
MSI B150A Gaming PRO Motherboard Review: Mixing Business with Pleasure
Noctua NH-L9x65 Review
Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Review: A Tough, Rugged Galaxy S6
The Intel Skylake Mobile and Desktop Launch, with Architecture Analysis
The Mobile CPU Core-Count Debate: Analyzing The Real World
The Skylake Core i3-6320 is the gamer's new best friend

20 of the Worst PC Setups – August 2015

I’m sure at some point you had a bad PC setup. Maybe moving into a new place, waiting for a new desk to arrive or you just ran out of room. I can remember my horrible PC setups from when I was living at the dorms in college. If you have ever ventured over to the Shitty Battlestations sub-reddit you will find a lot of horrible PC setups. We will are going to pick 20 each month and feature them as 20 of the Worst PC setups for that month. Here are some of the bad ones from August!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

AMD Linux Graphics: The Latest Open-Source RadeonSI Driver Moves On To Smacking Catalyst

Following this weekend's Radeon R9 Fury open-source Linux driver tests with the DRM-Next code to be merged into Linux 4.3, the latest Mesa 11.1-devel Git code, and LLVM 3.8 SVN for the AMDGPU compiler back-end, I proceeded to run some bleeding-edge open-source Radeon Gallium3D graphics versus AMD Catalyst Linux benchmarks on Ubuntu.

This Linux 4.3 DRM / Mesa 11.1-devel (Git master) / LLVM 3.8 SVN open-source stack was compared to the Catalyst proprietary driver. Originally I was going to use the latest Catalyst 15.7 driver release, but its kernel module was running into issues on this Intel Skylake-based system used for testing on Ubuntu 15.04. Thus I resorted to using the packaged fglrx 15.20.2 / OpenGL 4.4.13374 OpenGL driver as packaged in Ubuntu Vivid that would play fine with the Skylake system running Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop.

Read full article @ Phoronix

ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Review

With the Maximus VIII Gene, ASUS shows their next generation ATX gaming and overclocking motherboard, which is based on Intel's latest Z170 chipset. Like it's predecessor this board wants to convince with a balanced feature mix, which pleases overclockers as well as gamers. At this point we're very curious to find out what ASUS has come up with and how this board is going to perform.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Colorful iGame GTX 980 Ti 6GB

Colorful is one of the leading graphics card vendors in Asia. Their iGame GTX 980 Ti is overclocked out of the box using a triple-fan, dual-slot cooler. In idle and light gaming the card will turn off its fans completely for a noise-free experience.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Complete Guide to Workstations Part 4

So far in this series, we have made some initial tests and conclusions about the balance between CPU and graphics in a workstation (http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-morris/kitguru-complete-guide-to-pc-workstations-part-2/) , and then focused specifically on the types of application covered by the industry-standard SPECviewperf 12.02 tests (http://www.kitguru.net/components/james-morris/kitguru-comple%E2%80%A6tations-part-3/) . In this article, we turn our attention to two very significant applications in the 3D content creation (3DCC) industry: Autodesk 3DS Max and AutoCAD.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Core M-based Compute Stick coming early next year

The Core M processor is coming soon to Intel's tiny, Chromecast-inspired Compute Stick systems. During a recent briefing on its Skylake processors, Intel revealed that it has a version of the Compute Stick in the works based on a powerful but energy-efficient Core M processor.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

DeepCool Quanta DQ1250 1250W PSU Unboxing & Overview

In the wonderful world of DIY PC building, easily one of the most important components in any system is the power supply. Unfortunately, this is usually one area that is an afterthought for most users, as for the most part, power supplies tend to lack the excitement that is brought upon us by the more performance-effecting components such as the CPU and GPU. Well, today we hope to help in changing that by bringing you an unboxing and overview of the ultra high-end DeepCool Quanta DQ1250, which is a platinum rated, semi-modular 1250W power supply which aims to deliver enough power for even the most demanding configurations, while still keeping cool, quiet and efficient.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

G.Skill Trident Z 16GB DDR4-3000 (F4-3000C15D-16GTZ)

Gorgeous on the outside, but is it good on the inside? DDR4 is DDR4 is DDR4, right? Our benchmarks of previous memory paints this picture because the latest Intel processors hold so much clever cache as to render faster system memory almost redundant.

Yet while the JEDEC official standard remains a paltry 2,133MHz for the latest Intel Skylake, constituting a perfectly serviceable speed in most scenarios, the evolution in DDR4 manufacturing now means that 2,800-3,000MHz memory is barely any more expensive to produce. That being the case, it's no wonder that we're seeing a plethora of those kits flood the marketplace.

Read full article @ Hexus

Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 Preview

To date, the Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 is the most high-end Z170 motherboard available. It comes with a ton of features like for instance four full-size PCI Express slots, two M.2 x4 Gen 3 slots, and even a PLX PEX 8747 Chip. Apparently, we're curious to find out how this board does in our preview.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Intel 6th-Gen Core 'Skylake' processors officially introduced and optimized for Windows 10

It's been a long time coming for Intel, but the chip maker has finally and officially introduced its new family of 6th Generation Core processors. After previously revealing the unlocked Intel Core i7-6700K and Intel Core i5-6600K desktop processors for hardcore PC gamers at Gamescom in August, the company has now revealed the entire lineup of 6th-Gen Core desktop, tablet and mobile processors.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Intel Unleashes Onslaught Of Skylake CPUs For Next Gen Notebooks, Convertibles And Compute Sticks

Intel is following up on its Skylake bonanza by opening the floodgates on at least two dozen SKUs mostly covering the mobile sector. The company is divvying up the range into four distinct series.

There’s the Y-Series, which is dedicated to 2-in-1 convertibles, tablets, and Intel’s new Compute Stick venture. Then there’s the U-Series, which is aimed at thin and light notebooks and “portable” all-in-one machines. The H-Series has its sights set on gaming notebooks and mobile workstations, while the S-Series is designated for desktops, all-in-one machines, and mini PCs.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Intel: No plans for a socketed Skylake with eDRAM

You may recall that the surprise star of our recent Core i7-6700K review was the Core i7-5775C, a chip based on the prior-generation Broadwell architecture with a novel configuration. It's derived from a mobile-focused product that incorporates 128MB of eDRAM on the package with the CPU. However, that eDRAM doesn't just act as a graphics cache. It's an L4 cache for the entire processor. Despite the fact that the extra cache makes the Core i7-5775C an excellent gaming chip, Intel has no plans to produce a socketed Skylake derivative with eDRAM for desktop systems.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

MSI B150A Gaming PRO Motherboard Review: Mixing Business with Pleasure

Intel provides the B150 chipset as an entry-level business solution that will most likely be used for something boring like spreadsheets and countless hours in Farmville when the boss isn't looking. However, mainboard manufacturer MSI has a different vision for the chipset. Seeing an opportunity to build an affordable gaming platform, MSI has infused the gaming DNA of their Z170A … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Noctua NH-L9x65 Review

As far as performance goes, things got a little toasty in my testing, which was expected. But my testing is really outside the boundaries of what this cooler would normally be subjected. My testing did show that this little cooler that can almost fit in the palm of your hand still kept an overclocked 4770K a few degrees below 100 °C. While that is a bit on the high side, I hesitate to list the cooling performance as a Con, because if you use the cooler within the design intention, which is small form factor cases and HTPC environments, then you will have no problems. It does a fine job of cooling. If you try to cool an overclocked gaming system, well, Noctua has a variety of coolers that are better choices.

Read full article @ OCC

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Review: A Tough, Rugged Galaxy S6

For the most part, the S6 Active is a clone of the standard S6, as it features the same 5.1 1440p display, the same Samsung Exynos 7420 SoC inside, and the same 16-megapixel optically stabilized camera. But where the Galaxy S6 Active does differ from the S6 is in its design, which is much better suited to surviving drops, harsh conditions, and liquids. The Active also features a considerably larger battery, which promises to deliver far better battery life than the standard S6.

Read full article @ Techspot

The Intel Skylake Mobile and Desktop Launch, with Architecture Analysis

Intel’s 6th Generation of its Core product line, Skylake, is officially launching today. We previously saw the performance of the two high end Skylake-K 91W processors, but that was limited in detail as well as product. So it is today that Intel lifts the lid on the other parts from 4.5 W in mobile through Core M, to 15W/28W in Skylake-K, 45W in Skylake-H and then the 35W/65W mêlée of socketed Skylake-S parts. For todays formal launch we will be taking a look at the underlying Skylake architecture, which was unveiled by Intel at their recent Intel Developer Forum this August.

Read full article @ Anandtech

The Mobile CPU Core-Count Debate: Analyzing The Real World

Over the last 5 years the mobile space has seen a dramatic change in terms of performance of smartphone and tablet SoCs. The industry has seen a move from single-core to dual-core to quad-core processors to today’s heterogeneous 6-10 core designs. This was a natural evolution similar to what the PC space has seen in the last decade, but only in a much more accelerated pace. While ILP (Instruction-level parallelism) has certainly also gone up with each new processor architecture, with designs such as ARM’s Cortex A15 or Apple’s Cyclone processor cores brining significant single-threaded performance boosts, it’s the increase of CPU cores that has brought the most simple way of increasing overall computing power.

This increasing of CPU cores brought up many discussions about just how much sense such designs make in real-world usages. I can still remember when the first quad-cores were introduced that users were arguing the benefit of 4 cores in mobile workloads and that these increases were just done for the sake of marketing. I can draw parallels between those discussions from a few years ago and today’s arguments about 6 to 10-core SoCs based on big.LITTLE.

While there have been some attempts to analyse the core-count debate, I was never really satisfied with the methodology and results of these pieces. The existing tools for monitoring CPUs just don’t cut it when it comes to accurately analysing the fine-grained events that dictate the management of multi-core and heterogeneous CPUs. To try to finally have a proper analysis of the situation, for this article, I’ve tried to approach this issue from the ground up, and not relying on any third-party tools.

Read full article @ Anandtech

The Skylake Core i3-6320 is the gamer's new best friend

Today brings the official introduction of Intel's broad lineup of Skylake processors. This is the launch that brings us more affordable chips to go along with the Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K, which were released early. As a result, we now know how the entire lineup of socketed desktop Skylake processors looks.

Read full article @ The tech Report