Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

All-round Deluxe PC - January 2016
AMD wants to open up PC graphics chips
AOC gaming monitors review: for every budget
Are You Ready for Virtual Reality Gaming?
Asus Republic of Gamers G20CB Review
Das Gaming: Division Zero X40 Pro mechanical keyboard, M50 Pro mouse review
EpicGear Cyclops-X Review
FSP Hydro-G 750W Power Supply Unit Review
Lian Li PC-Q10 Case Review
Mini-ITX Liquid cooing with the Corsair Hydro H5 SF Review
Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 Network Attached Storage Review
Patriot Viper 4 3400MHz 8GB Review
Raidmax Monster II Mid-Tower Case Review
Star Wars: Battlefront Benchmarked
The NZXT Manta ITX Case Review
Vantec NexStar MX Dual 2.5-inch Hard Drive Enclosure Review
X99 Charts: 14 Boards - MSI X99A Godlike Gaming

All-round Deluxe PC - January 2016

The all-round Deluxe PC will last you a few years without requiring any upgrades. It is a bit more expensive, but is very complete as well. Using the internet, gaming, business applications, photo and video editing - all of these are possible on a good all-round PC, and you should never feel that you are lacking in performance for any of those activities.

This means a good processor and graphics card from the upper mid-range segment. Fast, yet affordable. You also need enough RAM and storage space, not to mention an attractive chassis and reliable power supply that can last several years. Of course you need a quality monitor, mouse and keyboard, as these are used very frequently.

This PC will cost more than the standard all-round PC, but it is also more powerful and has higher-end components. If this exceeds your budget somewhat, then you can have a look at out standard All-round PC instead.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD wants to open up PC graphics chips

AMD isn't just depending on ever-faster chipsets to boost graphics performance -- it thinks coders can lend a hand, too. The company's new GPUOpen effort gives developers the kind of open source code and documentation they need to use low-level PC video card features, port apps and otherwise understand GPU aspects that are normally kept hush-hush (outside of game consoles, at least). If everything goes smoothly, you'll see games that look nicer on current hardware, and general computing tasks that lean more on GPUs to crunch numbers.

It's potentially an important effort, and AMD is promising to accommodate multiple platforms. With that said, AMD isn't necessarily doing this purely out of generosity. It's being squeezed at the high end by NVIDIA (which rules the dedicated video card market), and the low end by Intel (whose processor sales lead gives it the de facto lead in integrated graphics). To some degree, GPUOpen is about making AMD's Radeon graphics chips more attractive to developers, giving the company a better chance in a tough market.

Read full article @ Engadget

AOC gaming monitors review: for every budget

If you're looking for a gaming monitor, you'll find yourself with a plethora of options these days. Not only will you have to choose between many brands, you'll also have to choose one model from the wide range of products available from each manufacturer. AOC sent us pretty much their entire gaming lineup, which we will discuss in this review. The various prices and characteristics of the models make them attractive to many different users.

AOC shouldn't be an unfamiliar name to our regular readers. TPV Technologies' , which is also responsible for Philips monitors, own brand, offers a wide range of products. They tend to have fairly competitive prices. The AOC G2460Pqu is an old favorite for lovers of 144HZ displays with a competitive price. The models in this test are all aimed at gamers, but AOC also manages to offer decent bang for the buck here - even though there's an exception, but that has its reasons.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Are You Ready for Virtual Reality Gaming?

Its only the first month into the year of 2016, and Virtual Reality is already taking the technology sector by storm. Manufacturers from all backgrounds are working on their own versions of a head mounted display with motion tracking capabilities. Sony, Oculus, HTC/Valve, and Samsung are the major players that have been working on the technology behind such devices. 2016 serves as the first year in which each company takes Virtual Reality to new heights. Read on to see if you are ready!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Asus Republic of Gamers G20CB Review

Gaming PCs are getting sexier all the time, but are they any better for it? Many of the industry's biggest names are betting heavy on a profitable future in PC gaming. With high fliers such as Lenovo stepping onto the scene, gaming specialist Asus needs to keep on its toes in order to stave off increasing levels of competition.

The Taiwanese firm's Republic of Gamers division is well known among the enthusiast audience, and with considerable R&D budget at its disposal, the RoG team has, in recent years, stood out from the crowd with desktop PCs that are a little different to the norm. We've already seen Asus rigs in unique shapes and sizes, and today we turn our attention to the RoG G20CB, a small-form-factor powerhouse that may set a standard for other system integrators to follow.

Read full article @ Hexus

Das Gaming: Division Zero X40 Pro mechanical keyboard, M50 Pro mouse review

Metadot, maker of the well-known Das Keyboard today is launching Division Zero, a new brand and product line developed specifically for the pro gaming and eSports community. Its debut offerings include the X40 Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard and the M50 Pro Gaming Mouse, both of which we'll be looking at today.

Read full article @ TechSpot

EpicGear Cyclops-X Review

With the Skall, Cooltek has yet another case in its portfolio. This midi tower is available for well below 100 Euro. Nevertheless it offers good build quality and there are many interesting features and even a lot of flexibility for custom watercooling.

Read full article @ ocaholic

FSP Hydro-G 750W Power Supply Unit Review

A good power supply unit may not be among the very first things people tend to look for when out in the market gathering components for a brand new system but it's without doubt extremely important (especially for gaming rigs) so when i see people who prefer to spend much on a good tower and just enough for a low-end PSU I’m just lost for words. I sometimes do offer my opinion to people when i happen to be present in such situations and most of them usually welcome my input but i don't really think that changes things nearly as much as our reviews do. Because of that you all know that we've done our best over the years to bring reviews of all the latest power supply units (more brands will be available soon) and we're doing that again today with the latest Hydro-G 750W model by our friends over at FSP.

FSP Group is the 5th largest power supply vendor in the world. Since the company was established in 1993, our outstanding management team has drawn together our R&D expertise, our sizeable production capacity, outstanding product quality to consistently excel in this competitive marketplace. FSP group is a publicly traded company listed in the Taiwan stock exchange, symbol: 30.15.TW, with revenues exceeding over 600 million USD. FSP group provides OEM/ODM power conversion products and services to the majority of well-established manufacturers and is the leading volume supplier of desktop PC ATX power supplies. In recent years, FSP group has expanded its R&D and manufacturing capabilities to become one of the major power conversion supplier of power adapters, industrial PCs, servers, LCD/LED monitors, LCD/LED TVs, heavy duty industrial products (UPS), portable battery chargers, Uninterrupted Power Supply as well as providing off-the-shelf consumer products, partnering with many strategic manufacturers.

The Hydro-G line of power supply units is the latest one to roll out from FSP and as many of you have probably figured out by now it's aimed primarily towards demanding gamers since not only is it fully modular (future proof really since you can swap the 24pin mainboard power cable for the new one if it ever comes to that) and has a single powerful rail (62.5A) but it's also 80 Plus Gold certified (over 90% efficiency). This line is currently available in 650/750/850W outputs and features active PFC, quiet 135mm PWM FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) fan complete with intelligent control system, Japanese heavy-duty capacitors, changeable side stickers, an assortment of industrial grade electrical protections (OCP,OVP,UVP,SCP,OPP,OTP) and is covered by a 5 year warranty. Certainly this is not the first time we've seen similar specifications and features even in previous models by FSP but the Hydro-G 750W is their latest model and it's up to us to see how it does.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Lian Li PC-Q10 Case Review

Amidst the endless booths of drones and hover boards at CES, there is a name familiar to most people that have ever thought about building a custom PC; that name was Lian Li

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Mini-ITX Liquid cooing with the Corsair Hydro H5 SF Review

In this review we analyze the Corsair Hydro H5 SF Liquid cooler, we go small! Now if you think that the product is a strange looking contraption, well okay it is. But for good reason, this is the first ever AIO liquid cooling solution for small form factor Mini-ITX solutions. That's right, this puppy will hover on top of your mITX motherboard armed with a strong processor whilst offering impressive cooling performance.

You know, in the world of CPU coolers nothing ever stops developing. These days you can pick a hundred different heatpipe based coolers, where many are shaped, formed and priced the same. The better heat-pipe based coolers are good though. Next in line are LCS systems (liquid cooling), the entry level products are affordable, easy to install pre-fab liquid cooling kits. We've seen and tested many of them as Corsair, Asetek, CoolIT and so on all have interesting kits. The bigger problem is cooling performance. The gear behind these kits are good yet the performance is often battling a small included 120mm radiator with thin tubing and lacking coolant levels due to missing reservoirs. To compensate FAN RPM goes up making a good looking product noisy again. With that in mind Corsair started to develop a new H series (for Hydro) coolers.

Corsairs Hydro range anno 2016 is extensive, but they had yet to cover the smallest form factor for the consumer side PCs, Mini-ITX. To get you an idea, Mini-ITX is roughly 17x17cm for the motherboard. Often these solutions are inserted into very small chassis, and that places limits on the coolers you can use. Typically you need to use a half or low-height cooler. These work fine, but the cooling performance remains poor to average of course. Now since Corsair has been working on something called the bulldog, a small form factor PC, one of the side-products from that project had to be what is now the Corsair Hydro H5 SF. Since Mini-ITX is a growing trend, why not offer a cooling solution for the DIY PC builder. For give or take 90 EURO you can purchase this product, much better than low-profile air-based coolers albeit a little intriguing to install we must admit.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 Network Attached Storage Review

Netgear has released a new line of high-end-yet-consumer-friendly Network Attached Servers (NAS) dubbed the RN210 family. They are available in both two-and-four bay models, and this time around we’ll be examining its two-bay model, the RN212. Keep in mind, however, that almost everything we cover here applies to the four-bay model as well, which goes by the moniker RN214.

The big deal with this NAS is that, according to Netgear, it’s the “only ARM-based NAS that delivers full HD 1080p to 480p transcoding,” with the purpose being the ability to stream content from the NAS to your smart phone or tablet without any dropped frames. Another notable is that it uses the BTRFS file system, which is a copy-on-write (CoW) system designed to improve data reliability and scalability...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Patriot Viper 4 3400MHz 8GB Review

Over the past eight years I have seen how Patriot has improved its brand and enthusiast level memory product stack. As each new platform arrived, Patriot had a set of modules that fit the performance needs of not only the system builder, but the enthusiast and gamer. Intel's introduction of the Haswell-E X99 platform ushered in the age of DDR4 memory. Coming along for the ride was a big jump in speed bins and bandwith associated with the higher speed ratings. The downside was that the primary timings were much looser to run the numbers thanks to the lower 1.2v JDEC operating spec.

As it did when Haswell-E launched, Patriot was ready with high speed DIMMs when the Z170 platform was launched. Today I will be looking at an 8GB dual channel set of Patriot's dual channel Viper 4 modules rated to run at 3400MHz with timings that are reasonable at 16-18-18-36 using 1.35v. Each of these Viper 4 modules are hand tested to ensure high quality standards that allow Patriot to offer a lifetime warranty.

At introduction, it was tough to swallow the cost of DDR4 DIMMs. Thankfully the cost of entry has come down significantly as the technology base is growing. To meet that need, Patriot offers Viper 4 modules in 8, 16, and 32GB kits with speed rating of up to 3600MHz. Pricing should be in the $75 range for these modules, putting them in a pretty sweet spot when you look at the XMP 2.0 rated speed of 3400MHz.

Read full article @ OCC

Raidmax Monster II Mid-Tower Case Review

Raidmax has aimed to provide computer enthusiasts with product solutions that have flair, performance and quality for over 25 years. Now Raidmax has updated their computer case lineup with the Monster II, naturally the next version of their original Monster enclosure with a totally new look.

Thanks to plastic loops at the bottom, the new Monster II case stands higher off the desktop (or floor) for potentially more air flow volume into the power supply/hard drive mounting area. These loops are also found at the top where they double as hand grips to facilitate transport around the office, home or to LAN parties. The Power and Reset switches are built into the top front handle, followed by the Power and HDD activity LEDs, and the audio and USB ports at the rear.

While the Monster II maintains the two front mounted cooling fans, the number of external drive trays was reduced to two. The Monster II front panel has been redesigned without the panel latches, and is removed by pulling upward at the bottom to reveal the filter for easy cleaning. The two front fan mounts also have been updated to allow for 140mm fan mountings, with one 140mm blue LED fan included.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Star Wars: Battlefront Benchmarked

May the FPS be with you! We test Star Wars: Battlefront's graphics performance on different hardware. Our results provide some good news: older graphics cards do just fine fighting the Galactic Empire.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

The NZXT Manta ITX Case Review

The new mystery NZXT case is finally here: the Manta. This mini-ITX case bends the rules with its curvy frame, and it's aimed at the growing mITX market of those who demand small, powerful systems. Let's see if this small fry lives up to big expectations.

The first thing you notice about the Manta is its curves. At $139, NZXT is obviously trying to attract enthusiasts who will invest in a case that stands out from the crowd. The curved metal panels all around give it an elegant design—this far from an ordinary case. The second you notice is the size: the Manta actually isn't that small for an mITX enclosure, and an ATX version of this case certainly seems doable.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Vantec NexStar MX Dual 2.5-inch Hard Drive Enclosure Review

ata redundancy is a thing that not many people think about. I myself lost about a year of photos because I had them stored on a drive that died and did not have a backup. One of the easiest ways to have data redundancy is to setup a RAID 1 array. Vantec wants to makes this easy with their new NexStar MX Dual 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure (NST-225MX-S3). This small enclosure supports two 2.5-inch hard drives that you can put in Individual/JBOD/RAID0/RAID1 modes. So if you are not going for data redundancy, but rather speed you can set them up in a RAID 0 array. Since this enclosure supports 2.5-inch drives that means you can use solid state drives! The enclosure uses USB 3.0 so your transfer speeds will be very fast too! Let’s take a look and see what it can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

X99 Charts: 14 Boards - MSI X99A Godlike Gaming

So far we've tested 14 X99 motherboards and we have to say that sometimes we got quite interesting results. What we've also done is, we have added results gathered with Right Mark Audio Analyzer in order to chek the quality of the onboard audio.

Read full article @ ocaholic