Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

20 of the Worst PC Setups – November 2014
3DMark to be updated with DirectX 12 vs Mantle tests
Aerocool Dead Silence Case Review
Altec Lansing Life Jacket Bluetooth Speaker Review
Arctic P614 BT Bluetooth Headphones Review
Best $500 Laptops: Holiday 2014
Cooltek W2
GALAX GeForce GTX 980 HOF Review
GIGABYTE GA-X99-Gaming G1 Review
Hands-on review: HP EliteBook 1020 G1 Special Edition
Holiday Guides 2014: CPUs
MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G Video Card Review
Patriot Fuel+ 12000mAh & 6000mAh Portable USB Battery Pack Review
PC Components Gift Guide 2014
Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV Micro-Tower PC Chassis Review
Qnap TS-453 Pro Review
Setting up Linux Mint 17.1 for the first time
Synology DS215j NAS Review
Tesoro Excalibur G7NL Gaming Keyboard Review
The Android 5.0 Lollipop Review
XFX R9 285 Double Dissipation Black Edition Review
Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520 barebones vs Sphere Plus Review

20 of the Worst PC Setups – November 2014

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 November!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

3DMark to be updated with DirectX 12 vs Mantle tests

The Farandole test uses 7.5 times more GPU draw calls than DX11 can handle. According to a 3DMark roadmap shown at AMD's recent 'Future of Compute' event, the DirectX12 vs Mantle API comparison tests will come in a version of 3DMark to be released next year, called 'Dandia'. It is understood that both DX12 and Mantle can offer at least 7.5 times the amount of draw calls than DX11 can handle. Thus new tools to measure the performance of these APIs at their limits will be useful until we see a good selection of applications and games that use them in the 'real world'.

Read full article @ Hexus

Aerocool Dead Silence Case Review

The Aerocool Dead Silence (or simply DS) is a unique computer case, not following any known form factor. It is not a mid-tower case, nor it is an SFF one. It is described as a "cube gaming case," but it is actually a case compatible only with microATX (and smaller) motherboards, where the motherboard is installed horizontally. Let's take a good look at it.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

Altec Lansing Life Jacket Bluetooth Speaker Review

Keeping with this trend today we will look at the Altec Lansing Life Jacket Bluetooth speaker. This speaker is designed to be durable as it is both waterproof and shock resistant as well as being portable. It can even submerge to up to one meter without any consequence.

The Life Jacket is also multifunctional as it can work as a wireless Bluetooth speaker, speakerphone with its built-in onboard microphone and the ability to function as a charger for any USB powered device including smart phones or tablets. It has a 16-hour battery life and NFC wireless check in capability.

Read full article @ Technogog

Arctic P614 BT Bluetooth Headphones Review

Today we are going to look at the latest set of Bluetooth headphones from Arctic – the P614 BT. This headset seeks to break new ground for Arctic, moving the brand into the fiercely competitive premium end of the market. Can they compete?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Best $500 Laptops: Holiday 2014

More and more people are switching over to laptops as their primary computing device these days, and its no surprise: the amount of compute power that most people really need has been pretty flat for a while now. Intel and AMD have been pushing out faster and more power efficient processors for decades, but unless youre doing something truly demanding you dont need anything close to the latest and greatest CPU and GPU for most tasks.

Of course part of the reason for the plateau can also be attributed to smartphones and tablets: the fastest SoCs of today are still substantially slower than modern desktop and laptop processors. Their advantage is that they use far less power and are far more portable, and with so many people using such devices weve seen more companies creating apps and websites that target lower performance devices.

While many might also be tempted to "just get a tablet and be done with it", there are still plenty of tasks that are far easier to accomplish on a laptop than on a tablet. Yes, you can add a keyboard case/dock to a tablet and make up some of the difference, but particularly for people that arent tiny, theres a real benefit to keyboards on larger (13.3" displays or more) laptops. So if youre looking for a decent laptop and you dont want to spend more than $500, thats what were going to cover in this guide. (Note that weve covered Chromebooks in a separate piece, so we wont discuss those here.)

Read full article @ Anandtech

Cooltek W2

The Cooltek W2 is a bigger version of the W1, able to hold an XL-ATX motherboard and fully sized components. It comes equipped with three 140 mm fans, the same high-quality aluminum shell, and an excellent mix of drive bays - including an external 5.25" drive in the rear. Clocking in at a good 20% less than the Carbide Air 540, the Cooltek W2 is an excellent alternative for those looking for a clean full-sized cube chassis.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

GALAX GeForce GTX 980 HOF Review

In this review we test the GALAX GeForce GTX HOF edition. No not David Hasselhoff or 'the Hoff', but HOF as in Hall Of Fame. The card is beautiful in design with a snow white theme; it is also the fastest factory clocked product that we have tested to date. Get this; the card is boosting at over 1400 MHz with its default settings. Armed with impressive looks, based on a custom PCB and a third party cooler the guys behind KFA2 and Galaxy introduce this gaming graphics card.

So let me do this bit (again) first -- GALAX? - Yes man, KFA2 and Galaxy made a drastic change, the two brands (naming wise) ceased to exist. Galaxy Technology and KFA2 merged into one single brand, GALAX. Same products, same quality and same warranty, but a different name.

Read full article @ Guru3D

GIGABYTE GA-X99-Gaming G1 Review

First announced back in April with the unveiling of GIGABYTE's Z97 motherboards, the newly baptised G1 Gaming Series not only dropped the previous 'G1.Killer' brand name but received a total image makeover as well. The company replaced the controversial but eye-catching lime green colour scheme with bullets, guns, and skulls galore, with a more subdued – and obviously much more common – black and red colour scheme. This isn’t exactly a controversial choice, since it merely puts GIGABYTE in-line with the aesthetics of the ASUS Republic of Gamers (RoG) and MSI Gaming motherboard series.

The GIGABYTE GA-X99-Gaming G1 WIFI motherboard that we are reviewing today is arguably tied with the X99-SOC Force as the company's top-of-the-line LGA2011-3 model, but unless you fancy yourself a really world-class overclocker this Gaming G1 model has a lot more to offer. In fact, in our opinion it presents the best that GIGABYTE has to offer. With a retail price of about $345USD/$390CAD, the Gaming G1 WIFI is a unquestionably a high-end motherboard, but it's been designed for those who truly know what they want.

Graphics performance is a highlight of this model thanks to the four physical PCI-E x16 slots making full use of the advanced PCI-E capabilities of the Haswell-E processors and thus supporting both 4-way SLI and 4-way CrossFire. But that's only the tip of iceberg when it comes to the gaming capabilities. There is a dedicated Creative Sound Core3D quad-core audio processor, which is a real differentiating factor when compared to the often mundane Realtek based onboard audio solutions found on most motherboards. Not only do you get advance gaming audio features, but GIGABYTE's implementation includes an excellent user-replaceable Burr Brown op-amp, high-end Nichicon Muse ES capacitors, a powerful headphone amplifier, and shielding and isolation to protect the audio portion of the motherboard from electrical interference.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Hands-on review: HP EliteBook 1020 G1 Special Edition

HPs EliteBook lineup probably isn’t the first laptop you think of when you decide to upgrade. The 2013 HP EliteBook 820 G1 was a sturdy and easy-to-use powerhouse marred by a short battery life and a pedestrian design. Last year’s HP EliteBook Folio 1040 G1 featured a super-sleek design, with a cruddy 1600 x 900 display, and the HP ZBook 14 was a beefy workhorse with a drag design. With so many other fantastic notebooks, UltraBooks and 2-in-1s on the market - such as the near-perfect Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus and solid units like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the Dell XPS 13 - HP would have to come out swinging in 2015 if it wanted to compete.

Read full article @ Techradar

Holiday Guides 2014: CPUs

For the majority of applications, the CPU can be the most expensive and most important and most researched component of a desktop machine. In a handful of scenarios (perhaps where specific features are required, or for single GPU gaming) it comes second on the list of important components but it is still a big piece of the puzzle. The CPU can determine responsiveness, throughput, and feel, and no matter how good the rest of the system is around it, a bad CPU can bring a negative experience to a work flow. 

That being said, for a lot of everyday tasks, one might consider todays level of CPU compute power enough for the office environment. Web browsing, email, watching videos and basic photo editing tools are all well catered for. Buying a faster more expensive processor means when the workload hits peak usage, the system can process quicker and responsiveness is still present. No-one wants to tell the boss that the work is not complete because the system is running slow, or that the family cant watch a particular Blu-ray that evening because it isnt encoded for the home NAS.

Therefore when it comes to a holiday guide for purchasing CPUs, we have to split into several separate use cases, which might also have their own niche subcategories. A number of these use cases are particularly obvious, so we will address these first. This year at AnandTech we have specifically reviewed 24 different CPUs and tested many more, and the benchmark details can all be found in our comparison results database Bench.

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G Video Card Review

If you are upgrading your GPU any time soon, make sure you read our evaluation of the MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G video card before you go shopping.

The MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G video card has a factory overclock and the new Twin Frozr V cooling system. We'll push it to its highest custom overclock and pit it against the ASUS ROG R9 290X MATRIX Platinum overclocker, and determine the gaming bang for your buck. May the best card win.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Patriot Fuel+ 12000mAh & 6000mAh Portable USB Battery Pack Review

Legit Reviews hasn't taken a look at many products from Patriot this year, but when we found out Patriot updated their popular FUEL+ series of portable USB battery packs we had to get our hands on them. The two new Patriot Fuel+ Portable Chargers would be the FUEL+ 12000mAh and Fuel+ 6000mAh. Over the past several years we went from sporadically using portable USB batteries when we had to travel out of town for business meetings to using them frequently around the home and office for a variety of tasks. Read on to find out if these battery packs will make your life easier.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

PC Components Gift Guide 2014

Last week we offered you all our picks for mobile tech goodies for good girls and boys this holiday season. Nothing says I love you and care, now get into this selfie with me, like a new smartphone, tablet or notebook -- even if that loved one is, well, you. You're on the nice list after all, so it's all good.

But what if you're the kind that likes to build it yourself, make your own, dial-in a dynamite desktop with only the choicest of components? Well then, our components gift guide should help to get you into that holiday spirit better than spiked egg nog -- and it's healthier for you too. Journey-on gift guide gear heads. We've got some of the good stuff for you too...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV Micro-Tower PC Chassis Review

The way we look at PC cases is forever changed thanks to the modders and the modding community. When people started to mod their beige PC cases, manufacturers took notice and changed. They changed what their cases looked like, they changed the materials used in the manufacturing process and most importantly, they changed the options available. In today's market, there...

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Qnap TS-453 Pro Review

Qnap adds Virtualisation Station to its four-bay SMB NAS. Whether it's in the home or office, a network-attached storage (NAS) server can be a powerful tool. We've tried and tested our fair share over the years, and though performance and features can vary from one model to the next, it's rare to come across a NAS that isn't incredibly useful in one way or another.

But where do NAS manufacturers go from here? The current crop of solutions all tend to offer capable performance, refined user interfaces and energy-efficient credentials, so what next? Most vendors are trying to think outside the box with add-on apps that bring new functionality to NAS units, and one of the more intriguing is Qnap's Virtualisation Station.

Enabling virtualised desktops on supported Turbo NAS units, Virtualisation Station aims to take the guess work out of VMs and bring the technology to the mainstream. To put the theory to the test, we've been sent a four-bay TS-453 Pro for review purposes.

Read full article @ Hexus

Setting up Linux Mint 17.1 for the first time

Getting Linux Mint to work is simple. Linux Mint 17.1 with the Cinnamon 2.4 interface may well be the best Linux desktop to date — and I speak as someone who has been using Linux on PCs for over 20 years now.

Mint will run on almost any PC from the last decade. It requires only any x86 processor and 512MB of RAM, although 1GB is recommended. You'll also need 9GB of disk space, though 20GB is recommended, any graphics card capable of 800x600 resolution, an Internet connection, and a DVD drive or USB port. That's it.

Read full article @ ZDNet

Synology DS215j NAS Review

Synology’s latest two-bay NAS is the DS215j. This model looks very similar to the DS214 and shares almost all of the features, except for the loss of one USB 3.0 port (you get one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0) and a reduction in processor speed. The DS214 uses a dual core 1.066GHz Marvell while the new DS215j has a dual core Marvell running at 800MHz.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Tesoro Excalibur G7NL Gaming Keyboard Review

If you attended CES earlier this year you might have encountered Tesoro’s booth which featured many of their upcoming products. The recently established German company was trying to bring attention as they have just opened their doors to the USA market, with the objective of bringing their unique gaming designs catered for gamers. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at one of their keyboards, the Tesoro Excalibur.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

The Android 5.0 Lollipop Review

Google has been very busy with their expansion of Android as a platform this year. At Google IO we saw the announcement of endeavors like Android TV and Android Auto. But the stars of the show were a preview of the next version of Android, code named Android L, and Googles new Material Design principles for interface design across all of their products. In the years since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich released, weve seen the launch of Jellybean and KitKat, but both of these versions were very iterative improvements upon 4.0 and had equally iterative version numbers with Jellybean being major versions 4.1 through 4.3 and KitKat being 4.4. Lollipop is given the major version number of 5.0, and its quite fitting as its arguably the biggest advancement to Android in a long time. To find out why, read on for the full review.

Read full article @ Anandtech

XFX R9 285 Double Dissipation Black Edition Review

Compared to the competitors R9 285 offerings, XFX R9 285 was able to deliver the highest core clock speed out of the three cards I have looked at reaching 1136MHz. As far as the memory overclocking goes, XFX's version comes in second place at 1526MHz. To manage the clock speeds higher than the out-of-the-box clock speeds, you can use any one of the popular video card overclocking utilities. I prefer using MSI's Afterburner tool if a viable alternative is not available. Without any additional voltage control outside of the Power Limit settings, there were no additional tools to gain clock speed other than increasing the Power limit in the Catalyst Control Center to +20% and start moving the sliders and hope for the best. That best was 1136MHz on the core or 161MHz over the baseline 975MHz, a 16+% increase over stock speeds. Where I saw a nice boost on the core the memory, was already pretty close to being tapped out right from the factory. I was only able to squeeze an additional 76MHz out of the GDDR5 memory to help drive some additional memory bandwidth. Not bad overall, but I felt like there should be more available when running the fan speed at 100% to maximize cooling performance. Still, what I could get delivered a 600+ point gain in 3DMark Fire Strike.

Read full article @ OCC

Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520 barebones vs Sphere Plus Review

Zotac has been in the nettop and mini-PC space for more than four years now and it has managed to carve out a nice niche for itself. From humble beginnings, i.e. cheap Atom- and Brazos-powered nettops, Zotac’s ZBOX line has expanded to include more serious mini-PCs with gaming credentials, ultra-small Pico boxes, passively cooled designs and stylish models like the Sphere.

If you are in the market for a spherical PC, then the Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520 is the one to go for – namely because it is the only one out there. The minimalistic Sphere offers a truly unique design and is bound to turn heads and start conversations. But is it just a triumph of style over substance, all too common in the tech industry today? That’s up to you to decide, so here are some facts.

Read full article @ Fudzilla