Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD Moves Forward With Unified Linux Driver Strategy, New Kernel Driver
AMD's Rory Read Steps Down As CEO, Dr. Lisa Su Appointed President And CEO
Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 Liquid GPU Cooler Review
ASRock X99 Extreme6 Intel LGA 2011-3 Motherboard Review
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix Review
Asus N550JK Review
ASUS ROG Crossblade Ranger Review
AZZA Z Mini-ITX Case Review
Biostar A68N-5000 Motherboard Overview and Review
EVGA X99 Classified – EVGAs Top Dog in The Enthusiasts Arena
Graphics Cards - Making The Step Up From Integrated Graphics
Kogan Agora 4G Budget Smartphone Review: Solid Camera, Near Stock Android
Micron M600 mSATA SSD Review (256GB)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Overclocking Video Card Review
NZXT Phantom 240
Scan 3XS Z97 Performance Q10 Review
Sleeping Dogs 2-Years Later Review
Synology DiskStation DS415+ Review
The TR Podcast 163: Windows goes to 10 and Maxwell does DSR
TYLT VU Qi Wireless Charging Pad Review
Which Gigabyte X99 board to choose?

AMD Moves Forward With Unified Linux Driver Strategy, New Kernel Driver

Alex Deucher of AMD has taken the floor at XDC2014, which got underway today in France to provide an update on the company's new unified open-source driver strategy. Compared to what I originally reported earlier in the year when breaking the news, there's some notable changes but overall this is an exciting endeavor for AMD Linux customers with the open and closed source AMD GPU drivers going to share the same (open-source) Linux kernel driver.

Back in March I exclusively wrote about AMD exploring a very interesting and more open Linux driver strategy. That information came during a meeting with AMD representatives during the 2014 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. The overall state of affairs where things are moving forward today is largely the same as outlined in that article, but there are some differences.

Read full article @ Phoronix

AMD's Rory Read Steps Down As CEO, Dr. Lisa Su Appointed President And CEO

AMD has just announced a new chief and her name is Dr. Lisa Su. She replaces Rory Read, who has stepped down as president and CEO, as part of a transition plan that will have him support the new boss in an advisory role. Read will remain with AMD through the end of the year.

Dr. Su brings with her an impressive resume that includes prior experience with Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Texas Instruments, and IBM, the latter of which she spent 13 years in various engineering and business leadership positions...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 Liquid GPU Cooler Review

Today we are going to take a look at a the Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 GPU Cooler, an aftermarket graphics cooling solution which is designed to improve the cooling performance of your graphics card, allowing more overclocking headroom while reducing the noise level.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASRock X99 Extreme6 Intel LGA 2011-3 Motherboard Review

The new ASRock X99 Extreme6 motherboard in our OC-Review is tested with an Intel Core i7-5930K 6-core processor and brandnew Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 Quad Channel memory and as befits OCinside.de, overclocked to the limit.
The ASRock X99 Extreme6 offers eight DDR4 slots and similar top features, such as the recently tested ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard, like e.g. HDD saver function, Ultra M.2 slot with up to 32 GB/s, Mini PCIe slot, Purity Sound 2 with digital sound output, five PCIe slots, up to ten USB3.0 ports, ten SATA3 ports, eSATA3, two Gigabit LAN ports and much more.
We will see how fast the new Intel LGA 2011-3 motherboard is with the Core i7 Haswell-E processor and explain how you can overclock the X99 system.

Read full article @ OcInside.de

ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix Review

Hot on the heels of the ASUS GTX 970 Strix review, we test the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix. Armed with that h00t of a cooler, a custom PCB, quality components and a factory overclock this product is bound to perform, whilst staying very silent. Heck, the DirectCU II based cooler won't even spin with GPU temperatures up-to roughly 67 Degrees C. The card has 4 GB graphics memory, is energy efficient and factory overclocked for you. Oh and hey, it overclocks nicely as well to almost 1500 MHz on the GPU boost frequency.

The PC market is interesting, it has been on a decline for sure, but here at Guru3D.com we've noticed an opposite trend. Gaming PCs are getting more and more popular, much like an American muscle car, or should we say card. We all want a beast of a gaming rig as, let’s face it, PC gaming as an experience is just so much better than anything else out there. Roughly a year and a half ago it became apparent that Nvidia was brewing a new GPU architecture under codename Maxwell. Yes, named after the mathematical physicist. The Maxwell family of GPUs is actually the 10th generation of GPU architecture for Nvidia. With several design goals in mind (higher performance and lower power consumption) Nvidia was hoping to reach 20nm by the time their high-end product would be released. It is now September 2014 and it is abundantly clear that the 20nm nodes are not yet viable for volume production of wafers with huge transistor counts. So Nvidia pretty much had to go with plan B and stuck with 28nm, this makes their silicon sizable, in relative proportions of course. None the less, Nvidia has moved forward and today the 2nd Maxwell based products (GTX 750 was actually the first trial) are being released as GM204 based GPUs. Yes, correct, GM204 and not GM210, meaning Nvidia is once again using the ‘high-end’ and not ‘enthusiast class’ chip to empower the product series we are about to review. Armed with voltage, power and load limiters, Nvidia these days can harvest massive performance out of chips when you think about it. They did the very same with Kepler really, GK104 versus GK110 anyone? So Nvidia certainly is doing something right. Today is testimony to that as we see two products performing in the GTX 780 Ti range of performance, but both will consume much less power. That’s actually a primary feature design target for Maxwell, more performance with less power consumption. The GPU used thus is the 28nm GM204, and the two derivatives created from it are the GeForce GTX 970 and 980. Ah, you noticed? Yes, correct, Nvidia decided to skip the 800 series to avoid confusion with some of their rebranded mobile parts. Maxwell is a new and sound architecture and as such it is released with a new series name. In this article we will have an extensive look at the architecture behind Maxwell, we will look at gaming performance from Full HD to Ultra HD, we will look at power and thermal characteristics and will serve you that on a silver platter with a nice photo-shoot here at Guru3D.com, of course.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Asus N550JK Review

The Asus N550JK is a 15.6-inch laptop for people who want a powerful computer capable of a playing some recent games without them looking like a slideshow, but don't want to pay the Earth for it. It starts at £799 (around US$1285, AU$1465), the version reviewed, jumping up to £899 (around US$1445, AU$1650) if you go for the thoroughly worthwhile IPS 1080p screen upgrade.There aren't a great deal of capable machines at this price that can really handle all that much gaming, making this a pretty interesting laptop. The MSI GX60, HP Envy 15 and Lenovo G710 are the key alternatives at the price. All offer dedicated graphics cards for about £800 (around US$1285, AU$1465) – but the nice, clean look and slightly higher-end GPU of the Asus N550JK will be a draw for many.Power over portabilityThe Asus N550JK sits in a bit of an awkward middle ground that doesn't generally get much attention anymore. Starting at £800 (around US$1285, AU$1465), it's not truly top-end, and it's far too large to be considered particularly portable or Ultrabook-like. This is a solid, practical laptop that's best suited to life on a desk.It's not a laptop to try and show off in a coffee shop – the 2.7kg weight would quickly earn you shoulder ache anyway. We did try lugging it around for a day but the experience wasn't too pleasant. However, the design is good, particularly considering that mid-range laptops often miss the mark on looks.The Asus N550JK's lid is lightly brushed dark blue/grey aluminium. Treated metal is one of Asus' standard design calling cards, but the texture is much less pronounced and showy than it is in the Asus Zenbook Ultrabooks.Aluminium is used once again inside. The entire keyboard top-plate is aluminium, with an anodised-style finish and a neat looking pattern of concentric circles of dots up top. Initially it appears these are cut into the keyboard surround, but they're actually raised.Could we do without them? Absolutely, but it's just Asus' attempt to stop the N550JK from plunging into real design anonymity.

Read full article @ Techradar

ASUS ROG Crossblade Ranger Review

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) products are often extreme, and highly capable and their refined aesthetic has become recognised the world over. So stepping down into the relatively lowly realms of the APU, the FM2+ platform has become an ideal opportunity to take what is currently considered to be a mainstream platform more seriously. The latest Kaveri based APUs sport AMDs GCN GPU architecture as well as HSA features that are evolving rapidly. As the ROG want to support all gamers whatever their creed, we see a new branding for a relatively new platform for AMD. Even the naming, Crossblade, quite wittily resonates with its older brother, the Crosshair Series, while the new 'Ranger' suffix seems to represent 'entry level', so there may be concessions in regards to a more expensive ROG motherboard. Coming in at around £115-120 GBP, it is a fair bit more expensive than some already established A88X motherboards, but this series will always tend to hold a fair amount of prestige.

Read full article @ Vortez

AZZA Z Mini-ITX Case Review

AZZA has been one of these companies in the case building business and for a while now and they have a following but the m-itx small form factor cases are new and still manufacturers are having a hard time getting the designs just right and the smaller the better for them but the simplicity of the build is an issue too. After all, some of these cases require a builder with a degree in mechanical engineering to put one together and there have been some winners and losers for this complex mini case dominance and some case companies have gone almost exclusively small form factor while others are just offering a choice of smaller cases to fill the gap between all the case form factors and designs. AZZA is following that latter plan. This review looks at the AZZA Z m-itx Case model (CSAZ-103) and it’s priced at $59.99 to $79.00 US Dollars and can be obtained from online outlets and brick and mortar stores everywhere AZZA cases are sold.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Biostar A68N-5000 Motherboard Overview and Review

I have noticed that, far too often, the impression is made that more is better. More power, more fans, more memory, etc. I guess I could agree that, to some extent, this is true, however, there comes a point that it is just more. If it does not directly affect or impact what you need, it can also be overkill. Take, for instance, a car that came from the factory with 16 inch wheels. If you install 22 inch wheels on this same car, maybe you will achieve the appearance you want, however, the performance will degrade because it will take more power to turn those larger wheels. So if you only needed 16 Gigabytes of RAM, because that was all your system would utilize, there would be no need to spend additional money to purchase 128 Gigabytes of RAM. I like the phrase less is more. The Biostar A68N-5000 mini ITX motherboard is a great example of this. With the mini ITX platform we have seen some very impressive products, and Biostar has produced another great motherboard packed full of features. Would you like to control your HTPC with your smart phone? Biostar has you covered with their Bio Remote 2. Yes, an APP that can be installed to utilize some of the features of the motherboard. It is also capable of up to 16Gb of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, has an integrated AMD A4 Fusion Quad Core processor, and 3D visual, ATI Radeon HD 8330 graphics, that are DX11.1 ready. The 6+ experience from Biostar features Audio+ with 5.1 channel HD audio, Video+, Speed+, Protection+ with their over voltage, over current, and overheat protection. Durable+ with their moisture proof PCB, ESD protection, and low RdsOn P-Pak MOSFET.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

EVGA X99 Classified – EVGAs Top Dog in The Enthusiasts Arena

EVGA is one of those brands we have all seen come up and become a very strong force in the graphics card market and even motherboards. Their history is a bit of a roller coaster ride starting with NF series Nvidia chipset boards which no doubt had their fair share of issues finally eclipsing with the 790i which thankfully is when EVGA was able to offer intel chipset boards. With that they also picked up Peter Tan AKA Shamino and his engineering and overclocking knowledge made for some real magic with the X58 Classified among a few other boards, but a short while later Peter left and wound up at ASUS and EVGA boards showed this as feature sets and even performance suffered, but EVGA trudged through the tough times and looking at what we have here today they are all the better for it. I have a belief that you can tell a lot about a manufacturer not by how they do when everything is going well but by how they push through and never give up when things are hard.

The board we have here today is the X99 Classified and this at the time of writing is the top X99 based motherboard model EVGA offers. Normally the Classified stays the top model through the chipset life cycle so we will need to assess this as we do not expect any higher model to arrive.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Graphics Cards - Making The Step Up From Integrated Graphics

A few months back we posted an article outlining what a graphics card is, in layman's terms. (http://technologyx.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=e5002de6ed&e=312ec141fb) We went one step further and demonstrated the overall graphics processing power of a single graphics card, then went beyond that by installing another graphics card in two card SLI configuration, with Zotac's GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition. (http://technologyx.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=368d540dd9&e=312ec141fb) But really, why do you need to have a graphics card in the first place? What is wrong with using integrated graphics, or using the graphics that come with my motherboard? That brings us to today's topic and comparison. Today we are going to provide you with benchmark testing of a previous solid state drive testing system, which only utilizes integrated graphics. In our analysis we will take these results and compare it to that of our single and dual graphics card SLI configuration we
provided to you previous with Zotac.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Kogan Agora 4G Budget Smartphone Review: Solid Camera, Near Stock Android

Although the Kogan brand is known in Australia, especially their low-cost TVs, the Agora 4G represents their first real push into smartphones on a global scale. The phone is actually manufactured by BenQ’s ODM division, as indicated by a small BenQ logo on the back of the handset. The phone’s standout feature is its 5.0-inch 720p display, paired with a Snapdragon 400 SoC. On the back you’ll find an 8-megapixel camera, and inside is a sizable 2,500 mAh battery.

Read full article @ Techspot

Micron M600 mSATA SSD Review (256GB)

M.2 SSDs were developed to replace the mSATA form factor, however these devices are still in their infancy and the demand for mSATA SSD still exists. mSATA SSDs are mainly deployed in mobile devices such as tablets, laptops, and Ultrabooks because they allow for lighter and thinner designs. Their high performance, small foot print, and low power consumption make them the perfect fit for these devices over standard 2.5″ HDDs. Over the next few years the production of client tablets and notebook PCs will be doubling by OEMs.

Micron has taken notice of this and has just released their M600 line of SSDs as a solution. Offering a multiple varieties of compact, reliable, and high performance SSDs will allow companies, such as Micron, greater growth in the industry. Last week we went over both the 2.5″ 7mm and M.2 form factor M600 SSDs. Today, we will draw the saga to a close with our very last form factor for review, the mSATA model.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Overclocking Video Card Review

Our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Overclocking review is now online for your viewing pleasure. Make sure you take a moment today to give this article the once over. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 makes overclocking GPUs a ton of fun again. Its extremely high clock rates achieved when you turn the right dials and sliders result in real world gaming advantages. We will compare it to a GeForce GTX 780 Ti and Radeon R9 290X; all overclocked head-to-head.

Read full article @ HardOCP

NZXT Phantom 240

The NZXT Phantom 240 is the Phantom series' entry level gaming chassis. With the looks of the chassis mimicking that of its larger brothers, will this compact case be the menacing Phantom or just a little blimp on our radar?

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Scan 3XS Z97 Performance Q10 Review

Whisper quiet and mighty fast, the Performance Q10 is our kind of gaming rig. The introduction of Nvidia's high-end GeForce GTX 900-series graphics cards has given system integrators added incentive to launch gaming rigs ahead of the lucrative Christmas period.

In contrast to previous-generation machines, the latest crop of gaming PCs are set to be cheaper to run, easier to cool and quieter when in use. The days of your gaming rig doubling as a makeshift room warmer are seemingly numbered.

Attempting to make full use of the efficiency levels on offer from the latest Intel and Nvidia processors, Scan Computers has sent in the 3XS Z97 Performance Q10 - a gaming base unit that claims to be both whisper quiet and mighty fast.

Read full article @ Hexus

Sleeping Dogs 2-Years Later Review

Have you ever wanted to infiltrate an organized criminal organization feared around the world? If you have, then we may have a game for you, and if you have not, keep reading anyway, because you may still like it. Sleeping Dogs is a two-year-old, open world action game set in Hong Kong and has you playing as Wei Shen. Wei was born in Hong Kong and did some growing up there, but his family moved to the United States. Eventually he became a San Francisco police officer, but now, thanks to his childhood friendship with gang members, he has returned to Hong Kong for some undercover work.

As you can expect, there are a number of twists to the story that strain Wei's allegiances. He may be a cop, but sometimes his friends in the Sun On Yee need him. Exactly how his friends need him can vary quite a bit between the campaign and side missions. Sometimes he has to assist in a theft and other times he has to drive the getaway car because the other gang member does not know how. There are also some romance possibilities, should you choose to follow them.

Of course the Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is releasing soon, with all DLC included and some engine updates that will better populate the world and provide some better graphics. I own all of the DLC already, so my experience should be effectively identical in many ways.

Read full article @ OCC

Synology DiskStation DS415+ Review

Today we are checking out Synology’s latest 4-bay NAS server, the DS415+. Designed for small to medium businesses the DS415+ is said to deliver Xeon like performance in an affordable package. Synology has achieved this by implementing Intel’s ‘Rangeley’, a server grade SoC capable of supporting up to eight cores...

More than 2 years has passed since we reviewed the Synology DS412+ and yet it can still be purchased for $600 online today. This is due to the fact that the DSx13 and DSx14 series failed to replace the dual-core Intel Atom D2700 (2.13GHz) powered 4-bay NAS. Both the DS413 and DS414 were aimed at home users, leaving the DS412+ to satisfy the role of a 4-bay business NAS for a very long time.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

The TR Podcast 163: Windows goes to 10 and Maxwell does DSR

In this episode, our panel talks Windows 10, Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution, Gigabyte's X99-UD4 motherboard, and much more.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

TYLT VU Qi Wireless Charging Pad Review

There isn't a lot that goes into a Qi charging pad, or at least you would think. After all, you plug it in, plop your phone on it and there you have it. Most charging pads are designed with this mindset, being nothing more than flat pad with a plug that your phone sits on. The TYLT VU Qi wireless charging pad is an exception to that. It is thoughtfully designed to be a little bit more than just a place to lay your phone to power up.

Read full article @ WP Central

Which Gigabyte X99 board to choose?

As the dust starts to settle from the launch of Intel’s X99 platform and the latest GTX9xx cards from nVidia, level heads are looking at the benefits being offered by the new technologies, and beginning to think about making the investment. With prices varying so much, which mainboard is right for your project? KitGuru gets up close and personal with Andrew Ditchburn, technology guru for Gigabyte.

Read full article @ KitGuru