Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

6 Great Windows 10 Features You Can Get Today on Windows 7 or 8
Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review: Is Bigger Better?
Asus ZenFone 5 Review
Blackbox M10 SE Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Review
Cooler Master Elite 130 Case Review
Enermax ETS-N30
GIGABYTE BRIX GB-BXi7-4500 Review: Intel Core i7 in a UCFF PC
GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD4 LGA2011-3 ATX Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE X99 SOC FORCE Review
Hands On: Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB GDDR5 Video Card Review
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Review
MSI X99S MPower Motherboard Review
Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable 2000mAh Battery with LED Flashlight Review
Plextor M6 Pro 256GB Review
Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Vs NZXT Kraken Cooling Review
Synology DS415+ NAS Review
The best HTPC platform for the future: video quality tested of current CPUs and GPUs
The Cornerplay: Microsoft's rise, fall and reboot
The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank (10400 mAh) Teardown
Zowie FK1 Gaming Mouse Review

6 Great Windows 10 Features You Can Get Today on Windows 7 or 8

Windows 10 contains some great new features. if youre a Windows 8 user, you may be tempted to upgrade just to have your desktop work better. But you can get many of Windows 10s features without upgrading.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review: Is Bigger Better?

When introducing the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple described it as the “biggest advancement in iPhone history.” Naturally, the use of “biggest” was quite intentional, a pun almost. Prior to 2014, Apple’s entire iPhone line had only ever had two screen sizes: 3.5-inch and 4-inch. Those sizes were perfectly acceptable in their day, but of late, the market has asked for more. More screen real estate, more pixels, more horsepower and more battery life. While Samsung, LG, HTC, Nokia, Sony, and just about every other smartphone maker on the planet introduced larger and larger smartphones, Apple held steady. Samsung pushed the very limits of what we’d label a “phone” with its jumbo-sized Galaxy Note line, which has turned out to be anything but a fad. In fact, you could probably credit Samsung's trailblazing in the sector for pushing Apple to produce an iPhone with a 5.5-inch, 1080p display. And, as is typically the case when Apple releases a new product, the market has reacted. Apple sold
10 million of its iPhone 6 handsets in the opening weekend alone...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Asus ZenFone 5 Review

It feels like an awful long time ago that Jonney Shih, the Chairman of Asus, stood up at CES in Las Vegas and with no shortage of drama announced the new ZenFone range. And it is no surprise that it feels like an age has passed, since it has been eight whole months between the announcement of the ZenFones and the units being made available for pre-order by Asus in the UK.This is not the first time that Asus has announced products and then not delivered them in a timely fashion and it is somewhat unfortunate. Asus has been one of the more innovative Android device manufacturers over the past few years with the PadFone and Fonepad ranges just some of the evidence for that accolade. Despite the ZenFones being fairly ordinary by Asus standards they were highly anticipated and it is with some excitement that I am able to finally deliver a verdict on Asus' efforts.I have been looking at the ZenFone 5, the middle of a range of three (ZenFone 4, ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 6).

Read full article @ Techradar

Blackbox M10 SE Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Review

A couple of weeks ago i had to go to the airport near where i live at 7 in the morning in order to welcome a good friend of mine so as always i packed my smartphone along with my wallet and a pair of headphones and made my way there. Well the thing is that i actually managed to get there quite earlier and i was somewhat glad since i was hoping that there wouldn't be too many people at the airport so early in the morning (i rarely travel so early) and thus I’d be able to enjoy my coffee while listening to my favorite tunes. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and so the amount of noise coming from the terminals and from everyone around me made it quite hard for me to enjoy listening to music. Because of this the moment i came back home i started searching online to find a reasonably priced headphone set that offered active noise cancellation and thus could be used in noise intensive environments such as bus terminals, trains and yes even airports. The M10 SE active noise cancelling headphones by BlackBox were amongst the top results of our search and so it didn't take long for us to receive a review sample.

At Blackbox our passion is all about your sound – hearing what you want to hear, and not the background noise. In fact, we’re literally obsessed about fully integrating patented ANR Active Noise Rejection technology, to push back unwanted noise and let your music through. On the street or in the air, there’s a lot of challenge involved in delivering music without interference. ANR takes care of it, giving you un-compromised audio. ANR was developed to combat low frequency background noise in passenger aircraft cabins. Passengers can now experience the full audio richness of in-flight movies and music, at a higher quality of listening. That adds up to a better travel experience. That’s Music on the Move.

There are two types of noise reduction headphones (and headsets) in the market currently, passive ones that keep out unwanted noise by using thick earpads and a completely closed design and active ones which use sophisticated noise reduction technologies. The M10 SE headphones by Blackbox use ANR (active noise reduction) technology by Phitek which basically uses microphones placed on the exterior of each earcup to "measure" incoming sound waves (lower-frequency ones mostly) and then electronically cancel them by producing counter waves (can effectively screen out up to 89% of ambient noise). Unfortunately there are some limitations to this technology since it can't counter mid/high frequency sound waves as effectively but thanks to the reduced pressure of the earpads this technology allows for it comes as no surprise airlines are using it for their passengers. Other specs include two 40mm neodymium magnet drivers that feature a frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz, 32Ohm impedance and 94dB sensitivity.

Read full article @ Nikktech

Cooler Master Elite 130 Case Review

The Cooler Master Elite 130 is an inexpensive SFF (Small Form Factor) case for Mini-ITX motherboards, with one 5.25" external bay, two 3.5"/2.5" internal bays plus one 2.5" internal bay. The highlights of this product include the support for standard-sized ATX power supplies and dual-slot video cards and, therefore, targeted to users who want to build a compact gaming machine but don't want to spend a lot on a case. Let's see if it is worth picking this USD 50 case.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

Enermax ETS-N30

The ETS-N30 from Enermax might not blow you away with top-tier performance, but its affordable price will certainly be easy on your wallet. It even offers up lower noise levels and better performance compared to the stock heatsink bundled with today's processors. If you want lower noise levels with a bit more cooling power, the ETS-N30 might be just what you need.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

GIGABYTE BRIX GB-BXi7-4500 Review: Intel Core i7 in a UCFF PC

Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Intel kickstarted the category with their Sandy Bridge NUC kits in early 2013. Recognizing the popularity of this segment, other vendors also began to promote similar products. GIGABYTE targets this market segment with an extensive lineup of products under the BRIX brand. Late last year, GIGABYTE sent us their high-end vanilla BRIX, the GB-BXi7-4500. Unlike Intel's Haswell NUCs (with a i5-based SKU at the top end), this BRIX brings a Haswell i7 ULV processor into the UCFF market. Read on to find out what an i7 CPU can deliver in this form factor.

Read full article @ Anandtech

GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD4 LGA2011-3 ATX Motherboard Review

The Intel Haswell Extreme (Haswell-E) edition processors have taken the desktop computing world by storm. They are basically capable of doing just about everything possible, and really well too. Sure, we all would love the biggest and baddest processor but that means spending a lot of money. Then you have worry about which X99 motherboard best suits your needs. Maybe you don’t need all the high end connectivity that drives the cost of X99 boards upwards, or maybe you just need a solid board that will let you enjoy your top end CPU.

The GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD4 motherboard is one such board that promises to deliver stability, reliability, and performance whether doing something task intensive or playing your favorite epic game. It doesn’t cost near the premium of other boards so we’re curious to see how it stacks up.

Read full article @ Futurelooks

GIGABYTE X99 SOC FORCE Review

GIGABYTE’s overclocking line of motherboards has a strong tradition of shattered world records and a host of enthusiastic owners. Reaching at least as far back as the days of Intel's X58 chipset for CPUs based on the Nehelem microarchitecture, the distinctive black and orange motherboards have been a fixture for almost every Intel performance chipset since. From the start they have emphasised pushing the CPU to the highest levels possible, with rock-solid stability and components to match.

Up today is the GA-X99-SOC Force, the latest and greatest of GIGABYTE’s Overclocking Series. Based on Intel’s X99 Express chipset, it’s built to support the new Haswell-E CPUs through the LGA2011-3 socket. However it’s also one of the few to additionally support up to 4-way GPU configurations and has been assembled to GIGABYTE’s own Ultra Durable standard, which they claim gives it the greatest chance for stable operation at high speeds.

Read full article @ Vortez

Hands On: Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter

A few weeks back, Microsoft announced its Wireless Display Adapter. Boring name aside, we've had some time to play with the new device and have put together some of our first impressions.

Read full article @ Neowin

HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB GDDR5 Video Card Review

The HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo card features a proven 2-fan cooling system and is overclocked from the factory; the custom PCB ensures stability, better overclocking potential and the card should run fine games up to 2560x1440 with medium to high detail levels.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

Some would say that J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the best high fantasy authors of the last century, which definitely seems to be the case, considering how many times The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been reprinted and recreated in other media. He created a complete mythology for the world that has inspired many. This review is going to look at one example of this inspiration; Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

The story of the game follows Talion, a ranger of Gondor who was murdered with his family, but "banished from death" by a curse that has bound him to a wraith. While the game does keep to the canon of the mythology of Middle-earth, this is an original story set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The game itself is an open-world, action-adventure RPG with an emphasis on stealth, flowing combat, and a third-person camera. (Try saying all of that three times fast.) It also features what the developers have named the Nemesis system, which allows enemies to remember past encounters with you (assuming they survived), become stronger, and adapt their behavior in response to threats. The ESRB gave it a Mature rating for intense violence, blood, and gore, which makes a lot of sense since you eventually gain the ability to make your enemies' heads explode, depending on how you kill them. If such content would be inappropriate for you, then this review may be as well, as none of the media it contains has been censored.

Read full article @ OCC

MSI X99S MPower Motherboard Review

MSI has distinguished themselves as having three major motherboard lines. The Classic Series which focuses on the mainstream, the Gaming Series which is geared towards gamers and the Overclocking Series which is made for overclockers and enthusiasts. We are very familiar with the Overclocking Series here at ThinkComputers as we reviewed the MSI Z97 MPower motherboard not that long ago. Today we will be looking at the X99 version of that motherboard the X99S MPower, which sits as the entry-level motherboard in MSI’s X99 Overclocking Series. This motherboard features overclocking specific features like going through MSI’s OC Certification process, MSI’s OC Engine, voltage check points, and of course MSI’s Military Class 4 components. On top of that you have great features like an Ultra M.2 slot with speeds up to 32 GB/s, DDR4 support, MSI’s Audio Boost chip and so much more.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable 2000mAh Battery with LED Flashlight Review

If you are a fan of celebrity food fanatic Alton Brown, you may know that the one thing he steers clear of when equipping his kitchen is a "unitasker," an object that can only perform a single function. That is what I like the most about the Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable Battery. It combines a mobile device battery charger, something many of us will only use occasionally, with a flashlight.

Read full article @ WP Central

Plextor M6 Pro 256GB Review

Another enthusiast SSD enters the ring. Most solid-state drives (SSDs) deliver good sequential read and write performance. Better SSDs use trickle-down technology from the enterprise space to offer more resilient performance once the drive is in a well-used state, and it's this used-state performance that differentiates quality SSDs from entry-level models.

Plying the enthusiast scene is Plextor whose consumer SSD line-up is headlined by the M6 Pro range. Offering a five-year warranty, enterprise-grade features and a promise of long-term performance, Plextor also imbues the drive with its caching PlexTurbo software.

Read full article @ Hexus

Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Vs NZXT Kraken Cooling Review

Managing the thermal performance of a graphics card is no easy task, manufacturers extensively research their cooling solutions in a bid to offer the best performance and value vs their competitors products. Most graphics cards are created equal; take the Sapphire R9 270X that we have here today, it features a chip that is pretty much the same as any other R9 270X, but it also features one of the best coolers in its class. The extra cooling performance that Sapphires’ Tri-X cooler gives, allows the card to be overclocked for increased performance. Overclocking can make the card more powerful, but this also means it’ll generate more heat and you’ll have to add a better cooler. By adding a better cooler you reduce the heat of the card and leave more room for overclocking and so the cycle continues.

Overclocking is one reason for running a high-end cooler, but there are other benefits, as a more efficient after-market cooler can often run quieter than a stock cooler; lets not forget the fact that keeping your hardware from overheating can improve its lifespan. Today I’m going to be taking the NZXT Kraken G10 graphics card mount, which allows you to connect an Asetek water cooling unit directly to the GPU for improved cooling performance, and today we’re going to be doing that with the help of the NZXT Kraken X40 140mm AIO water cooler.

The G10 is a simple enough device and comes packaged in a small box, with a nice image of a cooler mounted to a GPU.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Synology DS415+ NAS Review

Today in our Synology DS415+ Review we go high specification with a NAS device that offers pretty much everything mainstream and enthusiast users as well as many small-medium businesses will need.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

The best HTPC platform for the future: video quality tested of current CPUs and GPUs

Which current hardware is the best choice for a living room PC and will be able to handle all future formats as well? Hardware.info tested 11 platforms, both dedicated graphics as well as CPUs with integrated graphics. In this test we do not only look at Full HD and the current codecs such as H.264, but we also look at 4k (Ultra HD) and the new HEVC codec.

It has been quite some time that we have looked at the possibilities and image quality offered by dedicated graphics cards. A few years ago there were some issues, as there were big differences between ATI/AMD and nVidia graphics cards, and also between cheaper and more expensive GPUs. More recent cards, regardless of pricing, all sport an excellent H.264 decoder and all have decent possibilities for post processing.

We did decide to revisit this test because of two reasons. There are now a lot of affordable and efficient platforms and more are coming, all an interesting base for a decent HTPC. Secondly the new Ultra HD standard (4K) is up and coming, new TV sets are being introduced regularly and the new H.265 (or HEVC codec) designed for this resolution is becoming more popular as well. One conclusion we can draw from this test is that if you are looking at building a HTPC that can handle this resolution and codec, it does come at a price.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

The Cornerplay: Microsoft's rise, fall and reboot

Computers didn't use to be lifestyle products; they weren't things the average person played with for fun; electronic brands were more functional than emotional or symbolic. It was a world where Dell was more influential than Apple. It was an environment that favored Microsoft, a tribe of engineers and office workers who made products for themselves. And they thrived.

Read full article @ Techspot

The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank (10400 mAh) Teardown

The Xiaomi Mi 10400 mAh power bank is one of the most popular power banks in town, and why not? For only RM 36 (~US$ 11.50), you get a really slick and well-made power bank with four high-quality 18650 lithium-ion cells. That's DIRT CHEAP, especially when it comes with the following quality components :

Texas Instrument BQ24195 lithium cell charger (92% charge efficiency at 2 A)

ABOV 8-bit microcontroller with a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter

Four units of LG or Samsung 18650 lithium ion battery cells (each with a capacity of 2600 mAh)

So how does it look like inside? That's what we intend to show today with this teardown of the Mi Power Bank. Take a look!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

Zowie FK1 Gaming Mouse Review

Zowie is well known for products aimed at gamers. Their latest FK1 gaming mouse appears to hit the right marks on paper but does it frag the competition in practice? Let's find out.

Read full article @ Neowin