Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

11 keyboard tips that will help you type faster on Windows 10 Mobile
1byone Wireless Bluetooth Rechargeable Keyboard with Multi Touchpad Review
20 of the Worst PC Setups – November 2015
21x 22-inch monitors review: smaller does not mean worse
AOC U3277PQU 32-inch 4K display Review
ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Motherboard Review
ASUS Maximus VIII Impact Review
Best Convertible Laptops: Holiday 2015
Bluboo Xtouch X500 Review
CM Storm Sentinel III Ergonomic RGB Gaming Mouse Review
Cooler Master MasterGel Maker Nano Review
Fallout 3 7-Years Later Review
GIGABYTE Z170-HD3 Review; DDR3 & Skylake
Google Nexus 5X Review: one of the top value choices in the Android world
iBuyPower Paladin Z860 Custom Gaming PC Unboxing Video
Intel x5-Z8300 Atom can handle 4GB of Ram
Just Cause 3 review: A great game, if you can play it
Patriot Blast 240GB SSD Review
PC Buying Guide: Holidays 2015 Update
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case Review
Sennheiser GAME ZERO Review
SilverStone Hi-Fi Audio Headphone Stand Review
Take Control of Your PC with UEFI Secure Boot
The Microsoft Band 2 Review

11 keyboard tips that will help you type faster on Windows 10 Mobile

The keyboard could be the most frequently used tool on our phones. We use it to write emails, notes, send messages, tweet, search the web, and more. Whether you're already a pro at typing or just getting familiar with your new Windows 10 Mobile device like the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, there are definitely some tips and tricks that will make you type faster. 

Read full article @ Windows Central

1byone Wireless Bluetooth Rechargeable Keyboard with Multi Touchpad Review

Keyboard, keyboard and more keyboards, they come in all shapes and sizes and interfaces and Bluetooth ones have become more and more useful as tablets become more popular. Tablets are great and all but I prefer mouse and keyboard myself for when I’m going to be using it for an extended period of time. Today for review I’ve got the 1Byone wireless Bluetooth rechargeable keyboard that has a multi touchpad built into it. The keyboard is thin and well made overall and it features plenty of function buttons for multimedia and office. The keyboard is rechargeable over USB so no need to worry about batteries and it should last up to 90 hours with continuous use on a single charge. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ Technogog

20 of the Worst PC Setups – November 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 November!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

21x 22-inch monitors review: smaller does not mean worse

Recently we have paid a lot of attention to Ultra HD  and 34-inch ultra-wide monitors. However sometimes you have to think small. In this article we do exactly that: a big test consisting of 21 monitors with a diagonal of 22-inch.

These monitors, without exceptions, have a 21.5 inch panel but are almost exclusively sold as 22 inch. Because of this we will be talking about 22-inch monitors, even though some are ‘only’ 21.5 inch and some manufacturers are more precise than others.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AOC U3277PQU 32-inch 4K display Review

The AOC U3277PQU is a high-end 4K display, with a large 32-inch screen and a specification suited to graphic design work and gaming alike. It has a 10-bit IPS AHVA panel, built-in speakers, a picture-in-picture mode and a fully flexible stand – for a relatively reasonable price.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Motherboard Review

ASUS is one of the top motherboard manufactures with product lines ranging from the very basic consumer to the high end enthusiast gamer. Their Republic of Gamer’s line builds in the best features that ASUS has to offer. Today, we will be taking a look at their flagship motherboard the Maximus VIII Extreme. It is designed to support the latest Intel Skylake processors, based on the Intel Z170 chipset. Currently the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme can be found online for $493.37 with free shipping. Let’s take a quick look at what ASUS’s flagship motherboard has to offer before seeing how it performs.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

ASUS Maximus VIII Impact Review

If there is a motherboard this year, which makes each and every enthusiast, gamer or even overclocker look closer, than it's the Maximus VIII Impact from ASUS' ROG department. After having set a new trend for mini-ITX gaming with their P8Z77-I Deluxe, ASUS now brings this form factor to the next level - yet again - by releasing this feature packed and powerful mini-ITX board. Next to a powerful VRM design and an additional sound module, there are plenty of other features and obviously, we're going to show them all to you.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Best Convertible Laptops: Holiday 2015

For our final segment on notebooks, we will take a look at convertibles. We’ve already covered standard notebooks, as well as gaming laptops. This final installment will focus on convertibles. This category sprouted out of nowhere with the release of Windows 8, but it has made some huge strides over the years with better and better devices being released. With Windows 10’s ability to switch the interface depending on which mode you are in, convertibles are now a fully fleshed out member of the notebook family.

I break convertibles down into two different segments. The first are those that are a tablet first, and those are defined by having the CPU and other parts in the display section. Keyboards are an add-on on these devices, and they generally are a better tablet experience, with somewhat compromised keyboards and with the heavy tablet section sitting out over the hinge, they do not have as good of a balance when compared to a traditional notebook. The other segment is ones where the keyboard can flip around underneath the display. As a tablet, they are not as good, since the heavy keyboard section stays attached, but as a regular notebook they have the advantage with balance and generally a better typing experience.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Bluboo Xtouch X500 Review

Over the past few months, we witnessed a flood of Asian budget phablets with impressive specs over, but a number of companies are now shifting their attention to compact 5-inch models. The reason is simple: there are just too many phablets out there and smaller 5-inch models are more popular in western markets. 

Bluboo’s Xtouch is one of these quasi-flagship designs. It’s a 5-inch phone based on a MediaTek octa-core processor, backed by 3GB of RAM. It’s also got ample storage in the form of a 32GB eMMC 5.0 unit. As an added differentiator, Bluboo decided to integrate a fingerprint scanner on the home button.

The phone boasts a 450-nit JDI 1080p display, capable of covering 95% of the NTSC colour gamut. The display is protected by a pane of scratch resistant 2.5D glass.
The Xtouch boasts 13- and 5-megapixel cameras based on Sony and OmniVision sensors respectively.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

CM Storm Sentinel III Ergonomic RGB Gaming Mouse Review

The legendary CM Storm by Cooler Master Sentinel mouse is back and it’s better than ever! The latest high-end gaming mouse from CM Storm takes everything we knew and loved about the Sentinel II, but improves on each aspect to make the Sentinel III the perfect weapon for modern gamers.

“The OLED display puts the Sentinel III in a class of its own. You can upload any logo or re-name your profiles across the display to represent different settings and/or your team logo. The Sentinel III also radiates any color you choose. Two different areas can glow any color that piques your fancy. With 16.8 million color options, you can tinker till you drop or completely switch off all LED lighting.”

The iconic ergonomics and palm grip design are still present, but the old laser sensor has been swapped out for a new Avago 3988 Optical Sensor, there’s a built-in OLED display, RGB lighting, TactiX shift button, higher quality switches, a more powerful 32bit ARM processor, more internal memory, higher quality switches, better software, weight tuning system, LOD tuning, fully-programmable buttons, easily changeable feet, the list just goes on and on!

Read full article @ eTeknix

Cooler Master MasterGel Maker Nano Review

Cooler Master went quiet for quite some time over the last two years, leaving many in the industry to wonder what was going on. Of course, Cooler Master hadn’t given up on the industry, they were working hard reinventing their entire product line, getting back to their roots and creating the “maker” series of products. We’ve already seen their incredible Master Case chassis, as well as their new gaming mouse, and there’s a huge amount of other products on the way, from headsets, chassis, power supplies, coolers and more.

Today I’ll be taking a look at something a little smaller, but still a very vital component in the building of literally every PC. The Cooler Master MasterGel Maker is the all-new thermal paste that looks set to take on the big boys in the high-performance cooling world and with the likes of Noctua, Gelid and a few others already dominating the market, CM has a hard battle to fight here.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Fallout 3 7-Years Later Review

Seven years after its release, is it worth returning to the Capital Wasteland? I am a little mixed on that. Fallout 3 is definitely a good game and worth playing if you have it and enjoy RPGs, but at this point in time, I am not as sure if it is worth seeking out. There are just so many other RPGs out there today that are at least as good that it is hard for me to recommend purchasing Fallout 3 today. I can definitely recommend playing the game, but am a bit more hesitant about recommending a purchase. The graphics are dated and while mods can help with that, you cannot fully escape it. The story and its method of being told are both pretty good, even if there are some quirks to it. The gameplay is solid, even with some bugs, and the unmarked quests thing will always bother me, but only you can decide if that will bother you, too. Fallout 3 is definitely a good game that has earned a good place in video game history, but you have to decide for yourself if you want to return to that time.

Read full article @ OCC

GIGABYTE Z170-HD3 Review; DDR3 & Skylake

Upgrading a system while maintaining a strict budget doesn't come easy these days. By and large, Intel Z170-based systems aren't inexpensive since the motherboards with the features people want come at a significant premium and there's also the additional expense of DDR4 memory which has to be factored into that equation. GIGABYTE has a solution though: their Z170-HD3 supports DDR3 memory modules and also comes with a pretty extensive feature set.

The history behind Skylake processors and their dual compatibility with DDR4 and DDR3 memory is a somewhat convoluted one. When the architecture was first announced, Intel made it apparent that support for low voltage 1.35V DDR3L was included, which meshed perfectly with the reduced current needs of current generation DDR4 modules. On the other hand, they issued a warning that utilizing standard voltage 1.5V+ DDR3 modules could damage the processors' integrated memory controller (IMC) and thus were not officially supported.

So where does this leave GIGABYTE's 170-HD3? It still provides a viable upgrade path since there have been certain checks and balances put in place the insure a certain amount of safety is built into GIGABYTE's ecosystem. However, if you choose to operate outside those "safe zones" then the risk is entirely in your court. When it comes to upgrading in this manner there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Google Nexus 5X Review: one of the top value choices in the Android world

The Nexus 5X is Google’s new mid-range contender, designed alongside the Nexus 6P to be the company’s poster boy for Android 6.0 ‘Marshmallow’. A true successor to the Nexus 5, the 5X includes a modest yet decent array of hardware starting at $379 for the 16 GB model, including a 5.2-inch display, Snapdragon 808 SoC, 2GB of RAM and a large-pixel 12.3MP Sony camera sensor.

Read full article @ TechSpot

iBuyPower Paladin Z860 Custom Gaming PC Unboxing Video

Today, we have published a new unboxing video of the iBuyPower Paladin Z860 Gaming PC on OCinside.de in German with English subtitles. The full review of the iBuyPower Paladin Z860 Custom PC is coming soon as well.

Read full article @ OcInside.de

Intel x5-Z8300 Atom can handle 4GB of Ram

2MB limit is a mythLow-cost tablets and telly boxes which use Intel’s Atom x5-Z8300 processor have 2GB of RAM on the basis that the cheap and cheerful Cherry Trail is the lowest spec out there.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Just Cause 3 review: A great game, if you can play it

Server and performance problems obscure stellar aerial acrobatics.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Patriot Blast 240GB SSD Review

Solid state drives have become the number one choice for people looking for a storage media with superior performance levels compared to that of regular mechanical drives. Most people obviously use them as primary OS drives while others have their games installed on them to reduce loading times. Still although all consumers want to benefit from the increased read/write performance levels not all have the same needs/demands neither in terms of performance and endurance nor in terms of capacity. With that in mind manufacturers keep releasing different models in the market in order to cover everyone out there and although it's been a long road eversince SSDs were first introduced we really think they're finally getting there. Patriot just released their budget-friendly Blast line of SSDs and once again we're amongst the very first to get the 240GB model in our hands.

Read full article @ NikKTech

PC Buying Guide: Holidays 2015 Update

The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best desktop PC hardware, spanning four unique yet typical budgets and a fifth for the no-expense spared, extreme PC crowd.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case Review

Phanteks managed to establish itself in under a decade of providing computer peripherals by keeping its two main goals in mind – “High-end quality and innovative products in thermal solutions.” Its first offering was a CPU thermal cooling solution for the overclocking community that proved so successful that the Phanteks team has continued to improve and provide more cooling peripherals, even expanding their offerings to include a full line up of cases. The one on our review bench today is the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX chassis, designed with innovative features for a budget price.

By the ITX in the model name, we know that this case is designed for small form factor builds. In spite of this, the case is in fact wide enough to hold a 200mm front mounted fan. Thanks to that, you can get high air flow with low flow noise, thus making this case more attractive as a platform for your otherwise cramped HTPC. Although the outer case structure is made from steel, the case is still lightweight, making for easy transport without fear of crushing anything that might be under the case.

Further inspection of the Evolv ITX case shows a very open interior design allowing the front mounted 200mm fan to pull air through the front filter, then drawing it over the CPU/motherboard and GPU areas for efficient cooling performance. Although the case doesn't include a rear mounted fan, the wide case design features a large perforated area in the rear panel for any CPU heatsink/fan to help exhaust the accumulated heat generated by CPU/motherboard and GPU.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Sennheiser GAME ZERO Review

Sennheiser, if you weren't aware, was founded in 1945 post-war Germany and have since shaped the audio market with the innovation and manufacture of professional grade microphones, headphones, monitoring systems and more. In modern times their success and renown for their high grade products makes their name a staple amongst audio enthusiasts around the world. They have a wide selection of gaming headsets but lately, it appears Sennheiser are redoubling their efforts into the gaming scene.

The GAME ZERO comes in as what looks like a refreshed version of the PC350 and features drivers that are expertly crafted by Sennheiser, a high quality noise reducing microphone that is mounted on a high quality, foldable frame. Made to be compatible with every current platform, be it Mac, Windows, Android, PS4 and Xbox ONE, Sennheiser have ensured cross compatibility.

Read full article @ Vortez

SilverStone Hi-Fi Audio Headphone Stand Review

SilverStone, a leading provider of high quality computer cases, fans, PSUs, and other accessories, is now offering a blacked out version of their Hi-Fi Audio Headphone Stand in their Ensemble Series Audio lineup. The EBA01B is made of solid aluminum, with a 2cm thick base and weighing in at 3.26 pounds, and features the ability to hold up to two large headsets/headphones.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Take Control of Your PC with UEFI Secure Boot

UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is the open, multi-vendor replacement for the aging BIOS standard, which first appeared in IBM computers in 1976. The UEFI standard is extensive, covering the full boot architecture. This article focuses on a single useful but typically overlooked feature of UEFI: secure boot.

Often maligned, you've probably encountered UEFI secure boot only when you disabled it during initial setup of your computer. Indeed, the introduction of secure boot was mired with controversy over Microsoft being in charge of signing third-party operating system code that would boot under a secure boot environment.

Read full article @ Linux Journal

The Microsoft Band 2 Review

At the end of October in 2014, Microsoft surprisingly released a late night press release about a new device they were launching. It was the Microsoft Band, which is a fitness wearable that was a key component of their Microsoft Health service. It was their first real wearable, and it was packed with sensors to track everything from your heart rate to your sleep quality. At the Microsoft devices event in NYC on October 6th, Microsoft announced an updated version of the Band, known as Band 2. Its goal is to provide even more health insights, while being more comfortable and stylish than the original Band.

Read full article @ Anandtech