Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD Catalyst 14.12 Driver - The Omega Driver Overview
AMD Catalyst 14.12 Omega Performance Analysis
AMD Catalyst Omega Driver Review
AMD Catalyst Omega Drivers; Details & Performance
AMD Catalyst Omega Launch
ASRock M8 Z97 Mini-ITX SFF System Review
ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review
Catalyst Omega driver adds more than 20 features, 400 bug fixes
Cougar 700M Gaming Mouse
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review
FreeSync monitors hit mass production, coming in Jan-Feb
Gigabyte WaterForce Review
How to turn off tabs in Mozilla Thunderbird
Intel Core i7 5960X CPU Review – What Has Become The Industries Best
Interview with UK gaming system builder CHILLBLAST
Introducing the new AMD Catalyst Omega Driver
Linux Mint 17.1 review - less change is good change
Noontec Zoro II HD Fashion Hi-Fi Headphones Review
Passcape ISO Burner Review
QNAP TS-451 Network Attached Storage Review
Review: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
Samsung 850 EVO 120GB
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD Review
Samsung 850 EVO Review
Samsung 850 EVO Review
Samsung 850 EVO Series SSD Review
Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (120/500GB) – Showing Off 3D TLC V-NAND
Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review
Samsung SSD 850 EVO (120GB, 250GB, 500GB & 1TB) Review
Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA Solid State Drive Review
Samsung SSD 850 EVO Solid State Drive Review
Samsungs 850 EVO solid-state drive reviewed
Swiftech H240-X
VSR is AMD's answer to Nvidia's DSR tech

AMD Catalyst 14.12 Driver - The Omega Driver Overview

AMD is getting ready for the winter, in this article we look at what AMD labeled the 'Omega Driver'. This naming has nothing to do with an old Catalyst modder who went by this name; this is the new 14.12 Catalyst driver which has had some TLC from AMD. The new driver overall is improving performance on a number of games, and next to that AMD is injecting a few new features as well. Time for a quick article to cover all topics.

The December Omega driver obviously is an incremental driver update just as we have seen on roughly a monthly release schedule. The driver team has put a lot of focus on consumer feedback and tries to deal and adapt towards the demand from you guys. In fact if you have any feedback and/or bug-reports, please do visit this link.

Read full article @ Guru3D

AMD Catalyst 14.12 Omega Performance Analysis

Every two or so years, AMD rolls out a year-end Catalyst driver update, which steps up not just performance, and splats bugs, but also expands the software feature-set. The new Catalyst 14.12 Omega is part of AMD's effort to catch up with NVIDIA's latest software features, and get ahead with some.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

AMD Catalyst Omega Driver Review

More performance and features for Radeon graphics cards and APUs. AMD remains publicly buoyant that its Radeon GPUs are highly competitive with Nvidia's latest Maxwell GeForce GTX 970 and 980 offerings. Nvidia may hold the single-GPU crown and be leading on power efficiency but competitive pricing and attractive game bundles are keeping Radeon in the game. But Nvidia's driver and software enhancements launched alongside high-end Maxwell haven't gone unnoticed by AMD.

As a direct response to Nvidia's software wizardry AMD has conjured up a few tricks of its own. AMD is delivering these in its latest driver update called Catalyst 'Omega'. Eagle-eyed readers may have already seen details about the Omega driver since they were unintentionally released ahead of schedule at the end of last week in the States. AMD's new Omega driver includes a seemingly endless array of new features that target frame pacing, resolution scaling and video quality. Omega is designed for AMD customers using APUs and GPUs with Radeon graphics, so many of the optimisations apply to both product segments.

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD Catalyst Omega Drivers; Details & Performance

AMD has introduced what may be its biggest graphics driver release ever, with more than 20 new features, 400 bug fixes, and some miscellaneous performance improvements.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

AMD Catalyst Omega Launch

AMD launch their new Catalyst Omega driver today. We had time to sit down with Sasa and Terry from AMD - two of the key people responsible for the new software. We also coverage the main differences and improvements with the new driver software.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASRock M8 Z97 Mini-ITX SFF System Review

We first saw the ASRock M8 Z87 small form factor barebones in the second half of 2013 when it was reviewed by my colleague Luke Hill. This latest Z97 version is a relatively minor refresh with an update to Intel’s latest Haswell compatible Z97 chipset. The SFX power supply has been upgraded from 450W to 600W and that appears to be the extent of the changes.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review

Today we review the basic no-frills ASUS X99-A motherboard and see just what ASUS has sacrificed, if anything, in order to keep the price in the $250 range. While Haswell-E CPU systems are not exactly for the budget conscious, saving cash on the motherboard gets you a lot closer to a budget-minded system build.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Catalyst Omega driver adds more than 20 features, 400 bug fixes

AMD has introduced what may be its biggest graphics driver release ever, with more than 20 new features, 400 bug fixes, and some miscellaneous performance improvements.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Cougar 700M Gaming Mouse

With such a wide variety of mice on the market we sometimes tend to focus just on what comes out from the largest of the manufactures. We sometimes forget that some of the companies that we now see as being large brands used to just be small up and coming brands. It’s nice to step back and check out what some of the other manufactures are doing. A great example of this is Cougar, just a few years ago they jumped into the fan market and we were very impressed with their offering. I’ve even seen some of their fans in use at our events. Well recently they jumped into the peripherals market and today I will be checking out their 700M gaming mouse to see if it has what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review

The first ever DDR4 memory kit that we reviewed was from Crucial and it was their standard JEDEC kit. While this memory was impressive it is not what most gamers and enthusiasts are looking for. Today we are taking a look at a second DDR4 kit from Crucial, this time it is of their Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 memory. This memory features an operating speed of 2400 MHz with timings of 16-16-16-5 at 1.2v. The 16 GB kit that we are looking at today of course has some very attractive, yet non-intrusive heatspreaders as well. Let’s get this kit on the test bench and see what they can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

FreeSync monitors hit mass production, coming in Jan-Feb

Among other things, AMD's Catalyst Omega driver announcement has given us an update of sorts on the status of FreeSync. The first FreeSync displays have entered the mass production and validation stage, AMD tells us, and they're now scheduled for a launch in the January-February time frame.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gigabyte WaterForce Review

3-way GTX 980 SLI water-cooling system takes PC graphics to the extreme. For a moment there, we thought Gigabyte was sending us on a trip to some exotic location. No such luck, though if you're a PC gaming enthusiast, what lies inside the company's mysterious suitcase is arguably even better.

This is the Gigabyte WaterForce - a three-way SLI water-cooling system that incorporates a trio of factory-overclocked and liquid-cooled GeForce GTX 980s. It's the ultimate graphics upgrade for performance aficionados, and yeah, as you might have guessed, it won't come cheap.

This is a £2,500 upgrade, folks, but lift your jaw off the floor and keep reading, as the benchmark results are tantalising, to say the least.

Read full article @ Hexus

How to turn off tabs in Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is my desktop email client of choice. It has been my primary go-to program for all things email for years and even though it is not very high up on Mozilla's priority list anymore, it is an excellent program for that.

Read full article @ gHacks

Intel Core i7 5960X CPU Review – What Has Become The Industries Best

Ever since the first dual-core desktop CPUs started rolling out in 2005, the race to bring more computing cores to desktop processors has been on. Now, nearly a decade later, Intel has pushed ahead further than ever before with the release of the Core i7 5960X, their first ever consumer socketed eight-core CPU. While, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a consumer grade eight-core CPU (AMD has been making them since 2012), this is first one with Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology which allows for 16 multiple threads per core that should increase overall performance in multi-threaded tasks greatly.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Interview with UK gaming system builder CHILLBLAST

UK System builder CHILLBLAST focus on building high value gaming systems and to give you a better picture of their operation we managed to get some time to chat with two of their key staffers – Ben Miles, Sales Director and Louise Blain, Marketing and Communications Manager.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Introducing the new AMD Catalyst Omega Driver

AMD is releasing a new driver called the AMD Catalyst Omega. This new driver contains many new features that AMD will update on a yearly basis. We'll go over what this year's driver update incorporates, there are features such as Virtual Super Resolution (VSR) that will allow you to run games at higher resolutions.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Linux Mint 17.1 review - less change is good change

Now relying on an Ubuntu LTS base, Mint update shows the distro's strategy is on point.

The Linux Mint team recently released Linux Mint 17.1—a somewhat minor but still welcome upgrade to the Ubuntu-based ecosystem. And while Linux Mint 17.1 arrives as it usually does (a few weeks after the release of a new version of Ubuntu), version 17.1 is not based on Ubuntu's latest effort, 14.10. Instead, this edition of Mint remains tied to the last Long Term Support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 14.04.

This marks the first time Linux Mint has not used the newest version of Ubuntu for a release. But if you paid attention to the curious approach of Linux Mint 17.0, you'll know that was the plan all along. These days, Mint will not be changing its Ubuntu base again until the next LTS release—Ubuntu 16.04—arrives in 2016. And at first glance, it might seem like a bad thing. After all, Mint is missing out on whatever new stuff is in Ubuntu 14.10 (in this case it's not much, but 15.04 will have plenty of changes).

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Noontec Zoro II HD Fashion Hi-Fi Headphones Review

When people hear the word headphones their mind immediately thinks of well-known and established manufacturers such as Sennheiser, AKG, B&W, JBL and Koss. This is of course the natural response any person would have (especially since at first we too would think of those names) but that certainly doesn't mean that these manufacturers are the only ones capable of releasing high quality products with very good or even excellent audio reproduction. As a matter of fact the best headphones I've used to date were manufactured by Ultrasone a name which although very familiar to audiophiles around the world it's not as popular as the ones we mentioned. Noontec may not aspire to design and manufacture the best headphones money can buy but they do offer models with very good audio reproduction at extremely affordable prices and the brand new Zoro II HD Fashion Hi-Fi Headphones aim to take things a step further.

Noontec is founded on his commitment to bring all end-users fabulous personal experiences and feelings with his own consumer electronics featured by elegance, fashion and high quality, Noontec now is presenting fashion Hi-Fi headphones, HD media players, Android TV BOX and Apple accessories; Most of them with honorable Design Awards, are well received and have gained a highly reputation all over the world. Embracing the idea of continually bringing superb personal experiences & feelings to the end-users, noontec has been strictly observing the international standards to elaborate every individual product. Hence, noontec branded products have internationalized developing management, fashionable design conception and globalized sales channels.

Roughly one year ago we tested the Zoro HD headphones which at the end of the day performed extremely well for their price although they did lack good bass levels something which we did pass along to Noontec. Well it seems that Noontec paid attention to our input (and that of others no doubt) since the brand new Zoro HD II headphones aim to fix that by using their latest Votrik HD400 40mm dynamic stereo drivers (feature a frequency responce of 13Hz-26KHz with 32Ohm impedance and 104dB sensitivity) which thanks to an different design, higher quality components (always compared to those used in the original Zoro HD headphones) and extended tuning can produce higher clarity bass-rich audio. Noontec has also used a different design with the Zoro II HD so although the headphones are still foldable, feature a nice shiny piano coating and the frame is made out of aluminum the end result looks even better (slightly larger however). Audio quality is our primary concern however so lets check the latest Zoro II HD headphones out and see how they do.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Passcape ISO Burner Review

If you work with ISO disk images regularly you have multiple options at your disposal. Windows users can burn ISO images to disk natively for example and nearly all unpackers supports the extraction of ISO file contents to the local system.

Read full article @ gHacks

QNAP TS-451 Network Attached Storage Review

Network storage used to be a thing only found in business class networks. However, with the increase in popularity of home networking and the ability to easily share large amounts of data between PCs attached to the home network, network attach storage is quickly becoming an integral part of the modern home network.  

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Review: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD

Several months ago, I attended the Samsung Global SSD Summit where I was first introduced to the Samsung 850 PRO along with its new 2nd generation 2-bit per cell MLC 3D V-NAND technology. At the time, 3D V-NAND had already been in testing internally at Samsung for almost a year and its introduction was quite revolutionary as it promised double the performance, double the endurance, and significantly better power efficiency than previous generation 2D planar NAND. Additionally, given the fact that 2D planar NAND physically hits its limits in terms of further die shrinks past the 1xnm lithography, the transition to 3D NAND was inevitable and not just for Samsung, but for the industry as a whole. For more in depth information on 3D V-NAND, be sure to check out our review on the Samsung 850 PRO here.

Read full article @ Custom PC Review

Samsung 850 EVO 120GB

The Samsung 840 EVO is one of the best consumer SSDs on the market. The drive delivers good performance for its price. Earlier this year, Samsung launched the 850 Pro that uses the 3D V-NAND that boosts the performance, capacity and reduces power consumption for the SSDs over the 2D planar NAND. We were hoping that Samsung would deliver a consumer drive that also uses same 3D V-NAND as what it has done in the past. Well, our prayers have been answered as Samsung has unveiled the 850 EVO as the successor to the 840 EVO.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD Review

We’ve seen our fair share of solid state drives over the past few years, and while we think they are fantastic in providing speed boosts in a PC system, not all SSDs are equal in terms of capability, performance, or features for the price you pay.

Prices continue to make SSDs more accessible to mainstream users, true enough, but there isn’t much to differentiate many of these products to the typical consumer. Are SSDs fast? Absolutely. Are they the same? Absolutely not. The trick is to find something that not only provides great performance, but can push the boundaries of what’s possible; more bang for your buck is certainly a laudible goal.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

Samsung 850 EVO Review

The Samsung 850 EVO is the latest in its affordable line of performance SSDs and shows Samsung's desire to push the solid state game along, even at the lower end of the price/performance stack.When it comes to solid state drives Samsung has really nailed its colours to the mast; it's going to be first to market with new technologies, it's going to aggressively drive pricing down and it's going to do it all alone.To that end, the Samsung 850 Pro was the first consumer SSD to arrive on the scene with 3D stacked memory making up its various capacities. The Samsung 850 EVO follows this trend, using another spin of the V-NAND technology for it's more price-conscious range of SSDs. And, as is its wont, Samsung is purely using its own technology - its own memory and controllers - for its drives.

Read full article @ Techradar

Samsung 850 EVO Review

When we sampled the previous generation 840 EVO from SAMSUNG we were very impressed. It was reasonably priced, had good encryption qualities and in stock format was also a very fast drive. Add RAPID technology and the drive became a performance beast. So, with today's example being a refresh of that SSD we are hoping for much the same, if not more. It would be fair to say that this drive, perhaps more than most is eagerly anticipated by the enthusiast market due to the popularity if the 840 EVO but that isn't to say that the 850 EVO is aimed purely at the enthusiast market segment because with the popularity of Ultra books and the demand for fast data access ever increasing, all users in the PC market will benefit from a drive such as this so when the chips are down - how does this drive perform? Is it value for money? A worthwhile investment or an unneeded rehash?

Read full article @ Vortez

Samsung 850 EVO Series SSD Review

A little over a year ago we got our first look at Samsung's 840 EVO drive, the first drive to prominently feature energy efficient TLC NAND along with really solid performance. It's a drive that was a big hit with consumers because it was priced well and was super power efficient. Plus Samsung's SSD marketing campaign didn't hurt either (remember this gem?). This time around the 850 EVO still features TLC NAND but now it's of the 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) variety making it the first to market on the client drive. While other makers haven't even ventured into the TLC NAND market, Samsung is already on their second generation TLC drive. Available capacities are 120GB, 250GB, 500GB and 1TB with MSRP's ranging from $99.99 to $499.99. They sent us over a 120GB and 500GB drive to see what we think.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (120/500GB) – Showing Off 3D TLC V-NAND

At the end of June, Samsung released the 850 Pro which was the successor to the 840 Pro. With it came their brand new 32-layer MLC 3D V-NAND flash, and this flash allows for greater durability, lower power consumption, improved performance and a 10 year warranty. This morning we are reporting on Samsung’s 850 EVO, the successor to the 840 EVO, and get ready for it as this SSD is going to rock your socks off.

What could Samsung have done to make their EVO series even better this round? They have thrown in a new controller for the 120GB-500GB models as well as their newest 32-layer TLC 3D V-NAND. With its new controller and 3D V-NAND, it performs like an F1 race car, yet is as efficient as an electric car! Quick burst speed and efficiency is what this drive is about. Most client PC workloads are relatively quick and small, therefore, building a drive that is optimized for low queue depth performance is important for daily client usage. The Samsung 850 EVO delivers.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review

In this review we test the 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD. The new SSD is a stunning series of storage technology as it is has an enthusiast class speed yet, is made to be very competitive in pricing. Armed with truckloads of performance and that attractive pricing Samsung is bound to shock and awe everyone!

As you guys know, we've been testing NAND Flash based storage ever since the very beginning, and it is surprising to see where we have gotten. The SSD market is fierce and crowded though. While stability and safety of your data have become a number one priority for the manufacturers, the technology keeps advancing at a fast pace as it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply breathtaking! You get between 450 MB/s to 500 MB/sec on SATA3 which is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, over the past year, NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well. Prices a year ago settled at just under 1 USD per GB. That was two to threefold two years ago. These days a good SSD can be found under 50 cents per GB. With parties like Samsung, Toshiba and Micro the prices now have dropped with another 20%, you can spot SSDs for 40 cents per Gigabyte!

This means that SSD technology and NAND storage has gone mainstream and due to the lower prices, the volume sizes go up as well. Years ago, 64 GB was hot stuff, then slowly we moved to 120 GB, last year 240 GB for an SSD in a PC was the norm, upcoming year we'll transition slowly to roughly 500 GB per SSD as the norm as such a drive is going to hover between 200 to 250 USD/EURO. With the market being so huge, fierce and competitive, it brought us to where we are today... nice volume SSDs at acceptable prices with very fast performance. Not one test system in my lab has a HDD, everything runs on SSD while I receive and retrieve my bigger chunks of data from a NAS server here in the office. The benefits are performance, speed, low power consumption and no noise. You can say that I evangelize SSDs, yes Sir... I am a fan.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Samsung SSD 850 EVO (120GB, 250GB, 500GB & 1TB) Review

Samsung hasnt stopped impressing me in the SSD space. The early Samsung SSDs werent very good, but ever since the introduction of the SSD 830 Samsung has been doing a brilliant job and has been setting the bar for performance, cost and reliability. The SSD 840 specifically showed what properly executed vertical integration can really do as Samsung was the first manufacturer to utilize TLC NAND in a client SSD. Two years later Samsung wowed us by introducing worlds first SSD with 3D NAND, the SSD 850 Pro, and today Samsung is presenting the TLC flavored V-NAND SSD, more commonly known as the SSD 850 EVO. Read on to find out whether the 850 EVO is as much of a beast as its big brother is!

Read full article @ Anandtech

Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA Solid State Drive Review

Samsung is at the ready with a brand new family of mainstream solid state drives, targeting the market segment previously occupied by its popular SSD 840 EVO series. The new Samsung SSD 850 EVO series is the follow-up to the company’s current flagship SSD 850 PRO, but the new EVO is Samsung’s first to pack 32-layer 3D V?NAND 3-bit MLC flash memory. The move to 32-layer 3D V-NAND 3-bit MLC flash (a.k.a. TLC) brings costs down, but doesn’t adversely affect endurance because the cell structure doesn’t suffer from the same inherent limitations of planar NAND, since the cells are stacked vertically with the 3D V-NAND.

We’ve got a 500GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO on the test bench and have compared it to the 840 EVO as well as the higher-end 850 PRO, and a few other enthusiast-class drives for good measure...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Samsung SSD 850 EVO Solid State Drive Review

Powered by their own 32-layer 3D V-NAND technology, the Samsung SSD 850 EVO replaces the 840 EVO solid state drive and delivers up to twice the density and write speed of traditional 20nm planar NAND flash components. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 500GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO against the fastest solid state drives available.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Samsungs 850 EVO solid-state drive reviewed

Samsung's long-awaited 850 EVO SSD employs three-dimensional NAND with three bits per cell. It augments that TLC storage with an SLC write cache, and it has a higher endurance rating and longer warranty than most MLC drives. We've taken a closer look to see how it holds up against the competition.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Swiftech H240-X

They say bigger is better, and it seems as though Swiftech is following through on that mantra with the H240-X. Similar to its smaller sibling, the H220-X, this new version offers a larger 280 mm radiator. Though is the increase in surface area enough to place this Swiftech cooler firmly at the top of the charts?

Read full article @ techPowerUp

VSR is AMD's answer to Nvidia's DSR tech

One of the features in AMD's new Catalyst Omega driver is Virtual Super Resolution, a technology very much like Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution.

Read full article @ The Tech Report