Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

4K Video Editing PC - August 2015
Amazon Echo Review: Introducing Alexa, Your Digital Assistant
AT&T GoPhone – ZTE Maven 4G No-Contract Phone Review
Azio Vision Backlit Wireless Keyboard Review
BeQuiet Shadow Rock LP Heatsink Review
Biostar N3150NH Mini-ITX Motherboard Review: Passive Progressive
EK Water Blocks L360 Liquid Cooling Solution Review, Wild Water! (EK-Kit L360 Rev 2.0)
How to Use and Configure Cortana on Windows 10
Intel Core i7-5775C (14nm Broadwell) Review
MSI Z170A GAMING M7 (Intel LGA-1151)
MyDigitalSSD 240GB SATA m.2 SSD Review
Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB USB 3.0 Drive Review
Shadow of Mordor Performance: Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu Linux

4K Video Editing PC - August 2015

A few years ago, your PC just couldn't be fast enough for digital video processing. By now every average PC is able to process Standard Definition (PAL 720x576) as well as HD Ready, but technology doesn't stand still. By now just about every smartphone can record in HD or Full HD and the new frontier is Ultra HD, also known as 4K. This resolution and the 'accompanying' codec HEVC / H.265 require seriously powerful hardware.

That's the reason why a powerful PC can still really make a difference. You need a fast processor, lots of storage capacity, and good monitor able to display 4K resolutions.

4K digital video editing requires a hefty amount of processing power, and our video editing PC delivers that in spades. Often overlooked in off-the-shelf PCs is the power supply - a video editing PC will be running longer and more frequently at full load, which stresses the PSU quite a bit. We choose high-end components that will work fine for some years down the road, ensuring stable operation for the rig's entire lifetime.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Amazon Echo Review: Introducing Alexa, Your Digital Assistant

In November, Amazon announced the latest addition to its hardware line-up, the Amazon Echo. The Echo smart speaker doubles as a digital assistant and home entertainment device. It’s an always-connected, always-available Siri or Cortana-like device designed for your home that can provide answers to common questions, play music, provide traffic updates, control your lights, read audiobooks, and much more. Because it’s tied to your Amazon account, the Echo can also be used to reorder products you’ve previously purchased from Amazon...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

AT&T GoPhone – ZTE Maven 4G No-Contract Phone Review

Last month, ZTE launched the ZTE Maven and available to AT&T customers. The Maven is being marketed as an affordable, but high tech, handheld device that offers a ton of features for those looking for a great deal on a new mobile device. ZTE is the fourth largest phone manufacturer in the U.S. but the second largest in the “no-contract” market. For folks that are looking for the ability to outright pay for their new cell phone, this handset might be ideal if you don’t want to finance or make monthly payments.

Priced at $59.99 with no annual contract, the ZTE Maven is available at AT&T’s retail stores or online. The phone can be activated on AT&T’s postpaid or GoPhone prepaid services.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Azio Vision Backlit Wireless Keyboard Review

As AZIO moves into its second decade of providing computer peripheral devices, the company aims to deliver products based on the 3 core elements of convenience, entertainment and accessibility. With that in mind, AZIO allowed us with the opportunity to review the Vision backlit wireless keyboard.

The Vision keyboard has features that are designed to reduce eyestrain and promote production such as the extra-large print keys. As a further aid, the keyboard has a blue backlight which is adjustable by a wheel located at the upper right corner. In order to conserve battery usage, the backlight goes off after two seconds of non-contact with the keys or palm rest.

The lithium ion battery for the Vision Keyboard is rechargeable through a micro-USB cable that is included. The battery has a typical 2 week usage before requiring recharging, which can still be performed while using the keyboard. With a 2.4 GHz RF wireless connection, you can work from up to a 30' range away from the receiver.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

BeQuiet Shadow Rock LP Heatsink Review

The Shadow Rock LP is a 75mm tall low profile heatsink rated for heat loads up to 130W TDP. It's built around four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes and relies on a single 120x120x25mm "PureWings 2" fan operating at 1500RPM (51CFM at 1.25mm/H2O according to manufacturer specs) to move air through a 22mm thick, horizontal nickel plated aluminum fin stack. The large fan gives the Shadow Rock LP an effective footprint of 122x136mm, with the solid copper heatspreader located asymmetrically to one side.

Read full article @ FrostyTech

Biostar N3150NH Mini-ITX Motherboard Review: Passive Progressive

Computers have become so ubiquitous in daily life that it is absurd to think that the very concept of having one in every household was considered a joke a mere 35-years ago. Back then, the concept of personal computing, let alone connected computing, was difficult to grasp because computers were expensive, took up plenty of space, ran hot and required … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

EK Water Blocks L360 Liquid Cooling Solution Review, Wild Water! (EK-Kit L360 Rev 2.0)

It’s been a while since we had hands on an EK Water Blocks Kit and with the new generation SkyLake processors right around the corner now is a good time to get back to the basics of Triple Radiator Water Cooling. An AIO (All In One) pre built kit is a pretty good solution but we’ve found that they are practically impossible to upgrade and few AIO cooling solutions offer triple radiators.

EK Water Blocks offers a couple of different kits with everything you need to set up your own Water Cooling Loop and their gear is standard DIY water cooling equipment. That means with the EKWB L360 you can pick up standard water cooling equipment and add-on or swap components to further customize your Loop either for improved looks or better performance.

When EKWB puts out a kit you can bet that everything you need is right there in the box and the bundle that comes with your EKWB L360 kit is no exception. All you need is a jug of distilled water and the EKWB L360 kit and your ready to rock.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

How to Use and Configure Cortana on Windows 10

Cortana is billed as more than a simple search feature. Its supposed to be a full-fledged personal assistant much like Siri is on Apple iOS devices. Here are the basics of setting up Cortana and using it on your new Windows 10 computer.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

Intel Core i7-5775C (14nm Broadwell) Review

Could this be the least exciting Core i7 chip of all time? Gather round, folks, these are exciting times - Intel has recently introduced cutting-edge desktop processors based on its fifth-generation Core architecture, codenamed Broadwell. Only, the excitement never really materialised, and the new chips are at risk of fading into obscurity with barely a whimper.

First, a little refresher. Intel microarchitectures are typically delivered on a tick-tock cadence, with the tick primarily representing a die shrink and the tock being used to insinuate a major architecture revamp. Going back through recent generations, we had the 2011 fan-favourite Sandy Bridge (32nm, tock), followed by Ivy Bridge in 2012 (22nm, tick) and then Haswell in 2013 (22nm, tock).

Whatever happened to a 2014 release? That's a good question. Broadwell, a 14nm die shrink and minor refresh of Haswell, is late to the party. Mobile chips based on the fifth-generation architecture did actually make their debut toward the end of last year, but desktop parts - the ones enthusiasts care about - weren't announced until June 2015, a full two years after the launch of the venerable Core i7-4770K.

Read full article @ Hexus

MSI Z170A GAMING M7 (Intel LGA-1151)

Today's the day Intel's latest launches, and here is MSI's Z170A GAMING M7 to help us take a look at what the new platform offers. Taken from the upper echelon of MSI's current GAMING motherboard line-up, the MSI Z170A GAMING M7 is an enthusiast-oriented GAMING product with a host of built-in features for today's gamer.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

MyDigitalSSD 240GB SATA m.2 SSD Review

As computers become ever smaller, their storage devices shrink as well. The Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), also known as m.2, provides not only a smaller envelope for storage devices to fit in, it defines new PCI-E based interfaces as well as the legacy SATA 6G interface. MyDigitalSSD’s Super Boot Drive is equipped with Toshiba toggle NAND and a Phison PS3109 controller, and is Benchmark Review’s test subject for today.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Seagate Backup Plus Portable 4TB USB 3.0 Drive Review

The rise in popularity of USB 3.0 has enabled a large number of high-speed bus-powered storage devices. While flash drives and external SSDs can take advantage of the high-speed nature of the interface, bus-powered external hard drives (2.5") still remain the only way for consumers to have an economical high capacity option. Seagate recently launched the Backup Plus Portable 4TB USB 3.0 drive based on one of the first 4TB 2.5" drives in the market. Read on for our review.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Shadow of Mordor Performance: Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu Linux

Last week Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was released for Linux after this AAA game premiered for Windows last year. Following its release I ran some Shadow of Mordor Linux benchmarks (and part two). Today are results on the same system when comparing the performance of this game under Ubuntu 15.04 to that of Windows 10 x64 Pro.

While I didn't plan to do a Windows vs. Linux comparison of Shadow of Mordor nor any other tests until if/when Feral Interactive Games is able to provide some command-line switches for automating the game benchmark on Linux, thanks to a number of kind Phoronix readers providing PayPal tips to continue running the benchmark manually outside of the Phoronix Test Suite, I spent the past few days running complementary Windows 10 benchmarks for this demanding game.

Read full article @ Phoronix