Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

A Steve Ballmer Story That Helps Explain Microsoft
Armari Magnetar M16E-AW1200-GPU Workstation Review
Be Quiet! Power Zone 750 Watt Power Supply Review
Cooler Master V750 Semi-Modular 750 W Review
Cougar MX300 Case Review
G.Skill TridentX 4x8GB DDR3-2666 CL12 1.65V Review
IK Multimedia iLoud Studio-Quality Portable Speaker Review
LUXA2 GroovyW Bluetooth Speaker & Wireless Charging Station Review
Radeon R9 270 vs. GTX 750 Ti
Raijintek Morpheus vs. DirectCU II - ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II
SanDisk Extreme PRO 240 - 480 and 960 GB SSD Review
Surface Pro 3 Review
Tt eSPORTS POSEIDON Z Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Tt eSPORTS Sybaris Wired & Wireless Bluetooth NFC Enabled Headset Review

A Steve Ballmer Story That Helps Explain Microsoft

The big thing most people misunderstand about Ballmer is that he's unbelievably smart. They see him going crazy on the stage and assume the man is a joke. I can assure you he's anything but.

Read full article @ Techspot

Armari Magnetar M16E-AW1200-GPU Workstation Review

The workstation market is a bit like a parallel universe compared to mainstream desktop computing. But technological developments work both ways. Armari’s Magnetar M16E-AW1200-GPU is the first system we have seen with AMD’s new FirePro W8100, based on the Hawaii PRO GPU. The Hawaii PRO first saw the light of day in November 2013 as the Radeon R9 290 consumer card – although the FirePro W8100 has many enhancements for professional users. Additionally the Armari has a number of other tricks up its sleeve for the 3D content professional.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Be Quiet! Power Zone 750 Watt Power Supply Review

You really can’t please everybody all of the time with one item, but that is often a good thing. What makes this good is that it calls for a wider diversity of products with different feature sets. Think about it for a second; when you are shopping for a product you most likely find yourself coming down to “product A has XYZ, while product B has JKL at the same price point”. While both products serve essentially the same function, each will have certain characteristics or features that the other does not. I have heard many people say that both products should simply have all of the features, but that simply isn’t feasible.

The reason this is not realistic revolves around price points. Every feature a manufacturer puts into a product costs money in way or another. You may see a particular chip in a unit that has a capability disabled and wonder why, and many times it is due to a licensing fee. While the hardware cost is covered, that fee may escalate the price of the product. Essentially, manufacturers are attempting to balance feature sets that will be advantageous to consumers while keeping the product at a price point that will be competitive. Some manufacturers will even skimp on individual component quality in order to stuff in more features, but what good is a bunch of features on a unit that does not work? It is all about balancing these things out, but starting with a quality platform is of utmost importance.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Cooler Master V750 Semi-Modular 750 W Review

Cooler Master decided to upgrade their VS(M) series and added a new model with 750 W capacity and nothing but Japanese capacitors, which play a key role in its increased reliability. Today, the VSM750 will be put to the test to prove it is worthy of your money.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Cougar MX300 Case Review

The Cougar MX300 is a value mid-tower case with two 5.25" bays, three 3.5" bays, three 2.5" bays, support for 240 mm radiators, and a transparent window at the left panel, costing below USD 50. Let's take a look at it.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

G.Skill TridentX 4x8GB DDR3-2666 CL12 1.65V Review

As it usually happens, when a first batch of new architecture CPUs rolls out of the factory, memory manufacturers are already there blazing with refreshed products to come by. However, it does not automatically eliminate the older models out of the market. As such, the DDR3-2666 CL12 version of G.Skill’s TridentX is still interesting enough for us to test although quite some time has passed after the initial release.

Read full article @ ocaholic

IK Multimedia iLoud Studio-Quality Portable Speaker Review

Testing wireless portable speakers while I’m away on business or during one of my very short yearly vacations is something i really do enjoy doing but although I’ve tested plenty such devices in the past I’ve always felt that there's no way I’ve seen it all in terms of features and performance. Sure numerous models have passed through here ranging from very compact ones that can fit in the palm of your hand and up to very large ones which i wouldn't quite call "portable" but all of them had one thing in common, target audience. For good or bad every single one of those speakers was aimed at regular consumers who just want to listen to their favorite tunes and although i also belong in that category there are people who don't and would like something more from a portable speaker. IK Multimedia caters to professional musicians around the world and their latest iLoud Studio-Quality Portable Speaker might just be exactly what some of them have been looking for.

It all began in a small town in northern Italy. Not just any small town, but a town rich in heritage — a heritage of innovation. A town known as the sports car capital of the world, and also known for its exquisite cuisine and as the birthplace of Balsamic Vinegar. And the birthplace of one of the most innovative companies in the music industry - the town of Modena, Italy. Way back in 1996 — around the time electricity was discovered and cell phones were the size of your average 4-slot toaster — two Italian engineers got together to solve a problem in a recording studio. Could you get the sound of classic analog gear from a computer? One of them said (in Italian, of course) "Could we emulate electronic circuits using DSP algorithms and feed an audio signal through the computer and get the same sound?" The answer was yes, the piece of gear they emulated was a vintage Abbey Road console, and a company was born. Although that's a pretty simplified version of how IK came to be, it reflects the driving philosophy behind all of our products: give musicians the tools they want/need to be creative and productive. IK Multimedia is a multi-national company based in Modena, Italy. We have direct operating units in 4 countries: Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. Our products are sold in over 120 countries with a network of 15,000 resellers and used by millions of musicians worldwide. The IK team includes nearly 100 people that take care of all aspects of our music creation products enterprise with passion.

The iLoud is not your average portable Bluetooth wireless speaker not only because it's twice as large compared to most mid-sized models in the market currently but also because it can output up to a massive 40W of power (probably RMS) thanks to its four class-d amplifiers, tuned bass-reflex and via its two 3 inch precision custom woofers and two 3/4 inch precision custom tweeters (bi-amped design). It also comes ready with onboard DSP (used to maintain accuracy and efficiency at all volume levels), a special iRig input which you can use to connect compatible guitars and dynamic microphones with iOS devices to create and process your very own content with the help of several mobile apps including AmpliTube and VocaLive. With all these in mind I’m quite certain that we all realize that this is not just a portable wireless speaker like the rest of the crowd. However the thing that interests me the most is audio quality so let's see if the iLoud Studio-Quality Portable Speaker is really the ideal companion for musicians around the world.

Read full article @ NikKTech

LUXA2 GroovyW Bluetooth Speaker & Wireless Charging Station Review

Bluetooth wireless speakers have becoming extremely popular over the past couple of years. They can be used with multiple devices and are powerful enough to provide music for an entire room. They are also small enough that you can easily throw them in your backpack or laptop bag. LUXA2 has a new Bluetooth speaker in their GroovyW, but it is not your ordinary Bluetooth speaker. It comes with a removable wireless / wired charging station giving you 4000mAh of extra power for your portable device. The GroovyW also supports NFC for pairing, has touch panel controls, a microphone to take calls and comes with a companion App for both iOS and Android.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Radeon R9 270 vs. GTX 750 Ti

Today we are going to compare the two Mid-range nVidia cards: the GTX 750 Ti with Maxwell GPU and the Radeon R9 270 Curaçao PRO GPU. The GTX 750 Ti is basically the first glimpse at NVIDIAs upcoming Maxwell GPUs and it will be quite interesting to see wether a lower end card from NVIDIA can keep up with a higher end card from AMD.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Raijintek Morpheus vs. DirectCU II - ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II

The R9 290X GPU is known to become rather hot and cooling this chip with a reference and even a custom aircooler can be quite a challenge. In almost any case you will see thermal throttling. In this article we're going to compare the results of an ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II Cooled by Raijintek Morpheus versus the same card with its stock ASUS DirectCU II cooler. At this point a little teaser: the differences can be as high as 19 percent!

Read full article @ ocaholic

SanDisk Extreme PRO 240 - 480 and 960 GB SSD Review

We revisit the SanDisk Extreme PRO review, join us in this round we will look at all three available models including the 240 - 480 and 960 GB versions. SanDisk has released the Extreme Pro series SSDs and though performance wise they will only be a notch faster opposed to the previous model, they offer better endurance, lasting performance, 10 years warranty and slightly better pricing as well. Meet the “cream of the crop” from SanDisk as we review their all new Extreme PRO SSDs with nCache technology. The successor to their magnificent Extreme II series SSD are made in-house by SanDisk themselves including the PCB design and the actual NAND storage flash memory. The SSD series has been developed alongside a Marvel controller tied to SanDisk NAND flash memory.

With the Extreme Pro series Sandisk ups their most popular SSD series a notch. It is a bit faster, but more importantly, SanDisk focused a lot on long-lasting performance. Typically over time performance of an SSD degrades quite a bit. That's different with the Extreme Pro series. There are more advantages, not only endurance, but lifespan has increased as well. Sandisk guarantees 80 TB written. So with 10 years lifespan even if you write 20 Gigabyte of data per day 365 Days a year that should be peanuts. In fact they are so confident about it that they will guarantee this with a 10 year limited warranty. While stability and safety of your data have become a number priority for the manufacturers, the technology keeps advancing in a fast pace as it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply breathtaking. 450 to 500 MB/sec on SATA3 is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, in the past year NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well. Prices now roughly settle at just under 1 USD per GB for the end-user. As such, SSD technology and NAND storage have gone mainstream. The market is huge, fierce and competitive, but it brought us where we are today offering nice volume SSDs at way more acceptable prices.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Surface Pro 3 Review

Featuring a larger 12in display, a wealth of chipset options and a reasonable battery life the Surface Pro 3 does a great job of showcasing Windows 8.1's finer points. However, the extra £110 Microsoft is charging for the add-on Type Cover, combined with its hefty £640 starting price, make the Surface Pro 3 an expensive laptop replacement.

Pros:
Clear display, good performance, wealth of productivity services, good battery life

Cons:
Expensive by tablet standards, Type Cover costs an extra £110, stylus can lag

Read full article @ V3

Tt eSPORTS POSEIDON Z Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Thermaltake’s long running Tt eSPORTS keyboards have been characteristically flashy, aggressive, and occasionally silly such as the older Challenger keyboards which had fans for blowing air over the keys and keeping a gamer’s hands dry. What we have here in this review stands away from those principles. The Poseidon keyboards go for a much more minimalist looking design while leaving individually backlit keys and mechanical switches as showcase features. The Poseidon Z Illuminated is the Kailh mechanical switch update to the original Poseidon Illuminated which used Cherry MX mechanical switches. Read on to see how the Poseidon Z performs.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Tt eSPORTS Sybaris Wired & Wireless Bluetooth NFC Enabled Headset Review

Tt eSPORTS are a powerful force in the gaming market these days, they’ve got a wide range of gaming peripherals that have won countless awards for them around the world, and a fair few of them came from us here at eTeknix. Their gaming keyboards and mice are some of the best in the business, and in recent years they’ve also been creating so absolutely stunning gaming headsets too. So when I heard that they had a new Tt eSPORTS gaming headset to review, I was very happy indeed and the Sybaris certainly sounds like a headset worthy of excitement. Not only does it operate on your desktop via a wired connection, but you can also pair it via NFC / Bluetooth to your mobile device, perfect for when you need to get up from your desk and actually venture out into the server known as “outside”.

A lot of headsets are now dual function, as very few people like the idea of having to spend money on two premium headsets, one for desktop and one for mobile use. Especially when the difference is usually nothing more than the cable that connects them. Buying a multi-format headset is a great way of saving money, but also getting more value from the product, so it will be interesting to see how the Sybaris performs in both wireless and wired applications. With a price tag of around £80 it is far from cheap and for this price range I’ll be expecting excellent performance and build quality, as well as a decent range of features to compete with other similarly priced headsets such as the Astro A30 and MadCatz FREQM.

As you can see from the specifications below, the Sybaris features two high quality 40mm drivers, a bi-directional microphone, APTX lossless streaming, Bluetooth 4.0 and a good quality rechargeable battery.

Read full article @ eTeknix