Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ADATA XPG SX930 240GB SATA SSD Drive Review: Value Beyond Speed
AMD Details Bristol Ridge AM4 Performance
Computer Upgrades: A Data-Based Perspective
Corsair Carbide Series 400C Case Review
Corsair VOID Surround Hybrid Stereo Gaming Review
Flagship Headphone / Amplifier Round Up
iPhone SE Review
Noctua NH-D15S
NVIDIA Shield Android TV console Review
NVIDIA Unveils Beastly Tesla P100 15 Billion Transistor, 16nm FinFET GPU With HBM2 And 21 TFLOPs Performance
Synology DiskStation DS716+ NAS Review
The HTC Vive Review
Vivaldi Web Browser Launches With Version 1.0: Built For Power Users Of The Web
WD My Cloud EX4 8TB NAS Server Review
Why Are Smaller SSDs Slower?

ADATA XPG SX930 240GB SATA SSD Drive Review: Value Beyond Speed

Like luxury cars, sometimes components not only have to perform fast but have to look the part as well. Since ADATA is aiming for the gaming and enthusiast segment with the XPG SX930 SSD, the cosmetic change is obvious but necessary to get some heads to turn. Having a cover package that is a lot less colorful than one would … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

AMD Details Bristol Ridge AM4 Performance

Over the last few months or AMD has been slowly dropping hints about their upcoming APU and CPU revisions. In the interim there have been some updates and a pretty nice surprise in the budget-oriented area. While many have focused upon the upcoming Zen microarchitecture, exactly where it would fit into the 2016 (and beyond) product stack wasn’t exactly evident. In another one of the fits and spurts of information, AMD has begun clarifying at least one part of their future indicatives: the Bristol Ridge platform.

If you remember some of the previous articles I wrote about this topic, AMD’s future APUs and general processing cores will be consolidated into a single socket type. Dubbed AM4, this socket will be the foundation upon which many (but not all) products will be built upon. As with previous generations there will be additional embedded solutions that won’t come with a socketed design but discussing those will have to wait for a little while since they’re currently residing “beyond the horizon”.

That AM4 socket will actually be utilized in two separate platforms: Bristol Ridge and Summit Ridge, the former of which will be used for upcoming APUs. Summit Ridge meanwhile will be very much targeted towards standard next generation CPUs but those are still some time away. Meanwhile, the focus here is its notebook iteration which is meant to replace and supersede existing Carrizo APUs.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Computer Upgrades: A Data-Based Perspective

In this editorial research article for Benchmark Reviews, I’ll examine two $350 desktop computer systems, two widely different computer upgrade paths, and a data-based approach to attempt to answer the ever-popular question: “what should I upgrade next on my PC?”. Given that $350 and an AMD-based computer, is it worth adding $350-worth of graphics power, or should a gaming enthusiast take that same amount and use it to switch sockets to Intel?

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Corsair Carbide Series 400C Case Review

Back in December we took a look at Corsair’s Carbide 600Q case. This larger case was one of the first Corsair had launched in a very long time. Corsair offered it in the “Q” (quiet) version, which we reviewed, and a “C” (clear) version that had an awesome clear side panel. At CES in January Corsair showed us another new case that was part of the Carbide Series, which was the 400. It also is available in Q/C versions. The biggest change with this case is that it is more compact, there are no optical drive bays and less room inside. But you still have room for long graphics cards, watercooling, 5 hard drives, and it even has a power supply cover. Being a smaller case Corsair has priced this case at only $99, so it sits with many entry-level cases in that price range. Today we are going to be checking out the 400C which features that awesome clear side panel so you can show off your hardware inside. Let’s see if Corsair has another winner in this case!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Corsair VOID Surround Hybrid Stereo Gaming Review

With the VOID Surround Hybrid Stereo, Corsair has another gaming headset in their portfolio, which features a rather interesting price point considering all the features you get. Equipped with 50mm drivers and a flexible microphone as well as good looking design, the vendor is trying to win gamers hearts. Apart from that the Corsair VOID can be used with gaming PCs as well as smartphones.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Flagship Headphone / Amplifier Round Up

As a publication KitGuru places a lot of focus on ‘gaming grade’ headphones priced between £60 and £150, however from time to time I like to delve into the high end ‘audiophile’ market to see what is available, particularly if money is not a concern.

In 2014 I wrote an article about the best headphones that money can buy (HERE (http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/highlights/zardon/best-headphones-money-can-buy-2014/) ) and in recent years I have also reviewed the Abyss 1266 (HERE (http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/highlights/zardon/abyss-1266-headphone-review/) ), as well as other high end headphones from brands such as Sennheiser and Grado.

This article today is focused around the synergy between amplifier and headphone and the four setups I have chosen for this article are to my mind some of the best that money can buy. There is about £70,000 of equipment on test today

Read full article @ KitGuru

iPhone SE Review

It's a phone that's in an identical chassis to the one released three years ago, and beyond a new color it's impossible to know which model is which. It's the iPhone 'Special Edition'.Then I look around the train carriage on the way to work and count the amount of iPhone 5S and 5 devices that are being prodded quietly all around. The number is staggering, and it easily dwarfs the amount of iPhone 6 or 6S handsets on show.Has Apple been smart here? Looked at the way people are using phones and realised there's a massive market for a certain form factor - one that's not only not being serviced in the iWorld, but in the smartphone arena in general? The iPhone SE is a phone that many might not have expected - in truth, we thought the iPhone 5C would get a reboot, with the plastic chassis coming in a more rounded, 6S-a-like shape and allowing Apple to offer a lower-cost phone that could be pushed to other territories where flagship phones don't sell as well.But instead we got a hark back to a long-forgotten era in smartphones, like Apple slit time in two and pulled a phone back through, and charged US$399 (359, AU$679) for the 16GB model, and US$499 (439 / $AU829) for the 64GB option for the privilege.

Read full article @ Techradar

Noctua NH-D15S

With a simple design change, Noctua has reinvented the NH-D15. The new NH-D15S has that same awful color scheme, but now features better memory and expansion-slot clearance, all thanks to its new asymmetrical design.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

NVIDIA Shield Android TV console Review

It surely took a while - but Nvidia have released their Shield game console slash SHIELD Android TV box to the European Benelux market and, being based in the Netherlands, as such we have received a sample for review. The Android TV box based unit is a little gem as it properly takes over your Smart TV experience, but can also function as a simplistic game console, next to that you can use Nvidia Grid to stream games (subscription based) and if you install Kodi you can expand this unit towards a fully fledged Ultra HD ready media player.

Nvidia has two models available in the market, the 'regular' version with 16GB internal storage, and also a 500 GB model. Both units come with that nice Nvidia controller, yet Nvidia currently includes a free remote, which I can already tell you, is probably the best media remote we have tested to date.

Nvidia submitted their smaller 16GB version of the Nvidia Shield set-top console, the unit is priced at 200 USD/EURO, the 500GB model adds another 100 bucks to that pricing. The SHIELD Android TV is powered by a Nvidia Tegra X1 processor with a 256-core based Maxwell GPU equipped with 3GB RAM all running Google’s Android operating system. Once we connect the unit to a viable 5G WIFI network (Gigabit Ethernet also supported) the unit automatically tries to update itself rapidly towards Android v6, also known as the latest Android Marshmallow.

Read full article @ Guru3D

NVIDIA Unveils Beastly Tesla P100 15 Billion Transistor, 16nm FinFET GPU With HBM2 And 21 TFLOPs Performance

NVIDIA just pulled the wraps off its fastest GPU and compute engine yet: the Tesla P100. This new GPU powerhouse is based on NVIDIA’s next generation Pascal architecture, which means that it’s built on a 16nm FinFET process. But even with thoroughly modern FinFET process tech, the Tesla P100’s die size measures 600mm2 due in part to the 15.3 billion transistors that comprise the new compute engine — nearly twice that of Maxwell, for reference.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Synology DiskStation DS716+ NAS Review

Just as with the bigger brother, the Synology DiskStation DS716+ is an amazing NAS unit, especially for the price. With the exception of the additional bays, it offers the same performance and versatility we come to expect from Synology NAS units. I was quite pleased with the overall performance of both RAID 1 and Synology Hybrid RAID for backup, and if you are just needing raw space and do not care about continuity, then in a RAID 0 setup with two 8TB disks you could have a big 16TB powerhouse for keeping files. I was surprised to see the RAM slot as a SODIMM design and even though it is unsupported, the ability to upgrade the RAM is a huge plus.

Read full article @ OCC

The HTC Vive Review

The HTC Vive has all of the ingredients to successfully challenge the Oculus Rift, including its 6DoF hand controllers, the ability to walk around in virtual spaces and 100+ games on the way.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Vivaldi Web Browser Launches With Version 1.0: Built For Power Users Of The Web

Today, Vivaldi has gone from a beta project to a production web browser with the official launch of version 1.0. After more than a year in public development, the team led by Opera Software co-founder Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner is ready to release their take on the modern browser with this first release. They are calling it a new browser for the web’s most demanding users, and they are trying to build an approach that focuses on the tasks that people want to do on the web.

The company has looked at the approaches by the other major browser makers, and seen a move towards simplification of their interfaces. With Vivaldi, the team wants to bring back features that have been dropped over the years, as well as create new functionality that doesn’t exist today, or perhaps needs extensions added to the browser to work. I use Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome as my two primary browsers, and both of them have been lacking for me in different ways, so I took the final release version of Vivaldi for a brief spin.

Read full article @ Anandtech

WD My Cloud EX4 8TB NAS Server Review

It has taken a few years to happen but it finally seems that NAS (network attached storage) devices/servers have finally replaced HTPC systems in most homes not only because of their compact size compared to regular desktop cases (always for systems that can accommodate 3.5" drives) but also because of their low power consumption and out of the box functionality. We've still to reach a point in time where NAS servers can also be used for PC gaming so with that in mind they can't really replace regular systems (at least not yet) but right now consumers and enterprise users can perform the majority of tasks they do with Windows and Linux by using the available applications by each manufacturer and/or 3rd party developers. WD may not be the most popular brand in the NAS market (just like Seagate and Buffalo) but their My Cloud solutions have a very good track record and since some of you asked we decided to test the My Cloud EX4 model.

WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD’s leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

The My Cloud EX4 model has been around for quite a while (slightly over 2 years to be exact) so its Marvell 88F6262 Kirkwood ARM SOC single-core CPU running at 2GHz with the somewhat "limited" amount of 512MB DDR3 RAM and supported SATA II connectivity do seem out of place. WD has also placed an LCD screen, 2 USB 3.0 ports, two RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet ports (link aggregation is supported) and two dual power supply ports (redundancy is supported although only one external power supply is included in the package) on the My Cloud EX4 so at least in terms of connectivity it does quite well for a 2+ year old NAS model. Our sample came with four 2TB WD Red SATA III HDDs (the NAS is also available with 12/16TB capacities or driverless) preconfigured at RAID 5 but the My Cloud EX4 also supports RAID 0, 1 and RAID 10 as well as spanning and JBOD modes. So the time has come for us to check and see exactly what you can expect from the My Cloud EX4 both in terms of features and performance.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Why Are Smaller SSDs Slower?

If you happen to be researching specific computer hardware like SSDs, for instance, you might expect the smaller ones to be faster than the larger ones. But is that actually the case or is the opposite true? Todays SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious readers question.

Read full article @ Howtogeek