Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

20 of the Worst PC Setups - February 2016
Creative Sound BlasterX H5 Gaming Headset Review
Far Cry Primal: PC graphics performance
Hands-on review: Dell OptiPlex 24 7000/7440 All-in-One
Hands-on: Microsoft Lumia 550 second impressions; the best budget Lumia offering to date
Kingston HyperX Savage USB 3.1 Gen 1 128GB, HyperX Fast USB Thumb Drive Review
Lian Li PC-V33WX Review
Microsoft Band 2 Review
MSI GS40 Phantom 6QE Review: MSI's latest 14-inch gaming laptop
NZXT Manta (White Edition) ITX Case Review
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 NVM Express SSD Review
Seagate Backup Plus 8TB External HDD Review
Toshiba Q300 Pro 256 Gigabyte Review
Voyo V3 Review - A Fanless Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) mini-PC
Xiaomi Redmi 3 review: A $100 metal phone that crushes other $100 phones
Zalman Z-Machine ZM-K700M Gaming Keyboard Review

20 of the Worst PC Setups - February 2016

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 February!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Creative Sound BlasterX H5 Gaming Headset Review

There are some very important features that every gaming headset should have and at the top of that list is comfort. Some may argue that sound quality or features are what define a gaming headset but, if the headset don’t fit well or becomes uncomfortable after a short time then it isn't very good.

In this review I’ll be looking at the Creative BlasterX H5 Gaming Headset. The H5 is a lightweight mid-level gaming headset that features a comfortable over ear speaker design, large 50mm stereo drivers, removable microphone and in-line remote for volume and microphone control.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Far Cry Primal: PC graphics performance

We take a look at Far Cry Primal in our usual in-depth ways. That would be tested on the PC gaming wise relative towards graphics card performance with the latest AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers. Multiple graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked. We have a look at performance with the newest graphics cards and technologies. We test with the game based on the day-1 release all patched up combined with AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.2 drivers and for Nvidia their GeForce 362.00 WHQL driver.

A few days ago the console verions have been released, the PC version has just launched. From early reports it's clear that the game is rather graphics demanding in terms quality settings versus your graphics card. In this article we'llt ry to expose what would be well suited for a PC.

This article will cover benchmarks in the sense of average framerates, we'll look at all popular resolutions scaling from Full HD (1920x1080/1200), WHQD (2560x1440) and of course that big-whopper of a resolution Ultra HD. UHDTV (2160p) is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.29 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as 1920x1080 (2.07 megapixels). Taking place in 10,000 BC, Far Cry Primal fully embraces the core of its predecessors — scavenging to survive against bizarre, chaotic enemies in a wild, unlegislated frontier, except that this time there is no rogue state or crazy totalitarian to facilitate this, it is how the world is.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Hands-on review: Dell OptiPlex 24 7000/7440 All-in-One

No, laptops, tablets and smartphones haven't killed the market (and demand) for traditional desktops. Sure, tastes have evolved over the past decade with a gradual shift, thanks partly to Apple and its iMac, to all-in-one (AIO) PCs, but from an overall perspective there is still a case for tethered, fixed computers especially in businesses and enterprises.That stems, according to Dell, from the need for organisations to maximise space and productivity in a commercial environment. And that's exactly why Dell embraced the AIO concept with the latest iteration of its product line being the OptiPlex 24 7440 AIO, which the company calls the world's most secure AIO desktop.

Read full article @ TechRadar

Hands-on: Microsoft Lumia 550 second impressions; the best budget Lumia offering to date

Somewhere between first impressions and a final review, there are second impressions. This is a video of the second impressions of the Microsoft Lumia 550, discussing preliminary pros and cons.

Read full article @ Neowin

Kingston HyperX Savage USB 3.1 Gen 1 128GB, HyperX Fast USB Thumb Drive Review

Today’s portable storage looks much different than just a few years ago. My first USB drive review was a Panda USB 1.0 drive with a blazing speed of 1.3MB/s read (at the time). Now we have SSD drive enclosures with USB 3.0 and 3.1 connections, but they remain somewhat bulky and require accessories to be carried.

Road warriors need data at their fingertips, and that’s best done with all-in-one thumb drives. Speeds and capacities on those range from old 512MB models, up to modern 1TB capacities, with the most affordable iterations in the $69 dollar range providing 64GB, while the 128GB models normally found in the $90 – $100 range. For under a hundred dollars you can get premium Kingston HyperX Savage USB 3.1 Gen 1 128GB thumb drive capable of 350MB/s read and 250MB/s write.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Lian Li PC-V33WX Review

PC-V33WX is a new cube case from Lian Li. Like all of their cases, this one also made of aluminum and there is tempered glass side panel. The PC-V33WX quite a lot of space and there is also a very decent feature list, which includes a rather special opening/closing mechanism. Overall this looks like a reall interesting product and we can't wait to have a close look at it.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Microsoft Band 2 Review

The Microsoft Band 2 has only been out for a handful of months, but it's doing well to hold onto its crown as one of the most fully-featured fitness trackers around.Microsoft announced at CES 2016 that the Band 2 will soon be able communicate with select Volvo vehicles and the functionality sounds awesome. Right from the Band 2, you'll be able to set the navigation, start the heater, lock the doors, flash the lights, or honk the horn. We're still awaiting further details on when the update will roll out.Next up, if you'd like to see the matchup between Microsoft Band 2 vs Microsoft Band, we go into deep detail on each and every change made.Lastly, we compared the fitness capabilities of the Microsoft Band 2 to some of the leading contenders in the smartwatch category, such as the Samsung Gear S2 and Apple Watch.

Read full article @ TechRadar

MSI GS40 Phantom 6QE Review: MSI's latest 14-inch gaming laptop

The GS40 Phantom is loaded up with a 14.0-inch 1080p display, an Intel ‘Skylake’ Core i7-6700HQ CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M discrete graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, and a combination of a 128 GB SSD with a 1 TB hard drive. It also packs the latest connectivity, including a USB Type-C port sporting Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 gen 2. When it comes to looks the GS40 Phantom's design is both understated and nice enough to stand out from the pack.

Read full article @ TechSpot

NZXT Manta (White Edition) ITX Case Review

They say real women have curves, but can the same be said about computer cases? Certainly we have seen cases with curved panels before, but NZXT steps up the ante with their new ITX chassis, dubbed "Manta." This is NZXT's first ITX chassis, and it is certainly a bold entrance into the SFF scene.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 NVM Express SSD Review

Samsung is once again leading the consumer market this time with their latest 950 Pro 512GB M.2 NVM Express SSD and our complete review has everything you need to know about it.

Read full article @ NikkTech

Seagate Backup Plus 8TB External HDD Review

Seagate recently announced capacity increases to several of its HDD products. Prior to that, the company released the latest iteration of its Backup Plus Desktop Drive. The new version is an 8TB model that supersedes the previous 6TB flagship.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Toshiba Q300 Pro 256 Gigabyte Review

With the Q300 Pro series Toshiba has SSDs in their portfolio which offer convincing performance, maxing out the SATA interface. Apart from that there is MLC NAND flash memory and therefore endurance is on a very competitive level as well. Overall the Q300 Pro could be an interesting drive and now we really want to know what this SSD is capable of.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Voyo V3 Review - A Fanless Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) mini-PC

Intel transitioned their Bay Trail-T Atom lineup (targeting affordable 2-in-1s, tablets and Compute Stick form factors) to 14nm with the introduction of Cherry Trail-T. The Atom x5 and x7 SoCs coming under this family have four Airmont cores and Broadwell-class Intel HD Graphics. We have already seen the x7-Z8700 in action in the Microsoft Surface 3 and the x5-Z8300 in the Cherry Trail Compute Stick. Due to the success of UCFF (ultra-compact form factor) PCs, many vendors (including no-name Asian brands) have resorted to making small computers by using these tablet platforms with minor modifications. One such vendor is Voyo, and their V3 mini-PC is a unique take on the Atom x7-Z8700 platform compared to traditional tablets / affordable 2-in-1s. Read on for our review of the Voyo V3 mini-PC using the Intel Atom x7-Z8700.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Xiaomi Redmi 3 review: A $100 metal phone that crushes other $100 phones

It delivers specs that other OEMs struggle to match at twice the price.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Zalman Z-Machine ZM-K700M Gaming Keyboard Review

I am not normally all giddy over keyboards, but this one really had my geek side going with the awesome lighting effects. I like to listen to a lot of music and this keyboard is awesome to have along as a show piece for friends and family as the music is thumping. Flashiness aside, the Zalman Z-Machine ZM-K700M keyboard was great to use. The LED lighting was perfect for typing in dark rooms or while gaming with the lights down. The tactile feedback of the switches really made it easy to ensure your keystrokes were successful and the response time was amazing. If you are into macros, then the ZM-K700M has you covered as well; the macro not only records over 100 keys, but also remembers the timing between each key press. This is a great and useful feature. You can also set up loops so that your macro keeps going until you stop it.

Read full article @ OCC