Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD officially launches A10-7800 Kaveri APU
AMD Radeon R9 290(X) roundup: MSI and XFX join the party
AMD Tonga expected in R9 280 and R9 280X refresh next month
ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO (Intel LGA 1150)
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 Preview
Best Video Cards: June 2014
Gigabyte BRIX Pro Review
How (and Why) to Change Your MAC Address on Windows, Linux, and Mac
How to install Raspberry Pi camera board
Intel Pentium-K G3258 20th Anniversary Processor Review
Intel Z97 Motherboard Round Up
Linux Mint 17: Fresh and Long-Lasting
MSI Z97M Gaming Preview
Panasonic TX-32A400 Review
Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD Review
Samsung 850 PRO 512GB SATA SSD Review
Samsung 850 PRO Review
Samsung 850 Pro SSD (512GB) Review
Samsung 850 Pro SSD Review
Samsung 850 Pro SSD Review
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 Review
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Review
Samsung SSD 850 Pro (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) Review: Enter the 3D Era
Samsung SSD 850 Pro 128GB and 1TB Review
Samsung SSD 850 Pro Review
Samsungs 850 Pro solid-state drive reviewed
Summertime PC Maintenance
TrueCrypt Is Dead: 4 Disk Encryption Alternatives For Windows
Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z Illuminated Blue Switch Edition Review
Wicked Audio Heist Earbuds Review

AMD officially launches A10-7800 Kaveri APU

Quad-core APU with Radeon R7 graphics. In order to put a bit more pressure on Intel's Core i3 Haswell lineup, AMD has now officially introduced the newest A10-7800 FM2+ socket APU which will be based on 28nm Kaveri architecture.

Featuring four Steamroller CPU cores, the A10-7800 does not feature an unlocked CPU base clock multiplier like the A10-7850K APU but does come with a slightly lower 65W TDP. It packs 4MB of L2 cache, works at 3.5GHz base and 3.9GHz TurboCore CPU clocks and features Radeon R7 series GPU with 512 GCN2 cores and 720MHz base clock.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

AMD Radeon R9 290(X) roundup: MSI and XFX join the party

At the end of February, we published a comparison test featuring Radeon R9 290(X) video cards from ASUS, Gigabyte and Sapphire. MSI and XFX, amongst others, were absent in this review. In the meantime, MSI has sent us three different models, including the Radeon R9 290X Lightning. XFX has sent us the Double Dissipation Black Edition of their Radeon R9 290. Time to add these four cards to the comparison.

We are not going to discuss the characteristics of the Radeon R9 290X and 290 again in this review. For more information about this, please refer to our initial review of the Radeon R9 290X from October of last year and our review of the Radeon R9 290 from November.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD Tonga expected in R9 280 and R9 280X refresh next month

According to some "reliable sources," as quoted by Chinese VR Zone AMD's Radeon R9 280 series is going to be refreshed to include a new GPU, codenamed Tonga. Currently the AMD Radeon R9 280 and R9 280X employ the Tahiti Pro GPU, making them basically rebrands of the older Radeon HD 7950 and HD 7970 graphics cards.

Actually the Tonga, said to be a more efficient mid-range chip, has been heard of before, as Tom's Hardware mused over such a chip a month earlier. However at the time it wasn't known what this GPU would be used for: it was speculated that an R9 275X would be slotted into AMD's range to accommodate Tonga – perhaps as AMD's Maxwell assassin.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO (Intel LGA 1150)

ASUS pushes the limits with its ROG branding by unleashing yet another HERO onto the battlefield to save the day. Built with ASUS ROG technology from top to bottom, the ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO just might be that new flashy board you buy.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 Preview

With their TUF series motherboards ASUS, have rather interesting products in their portfolio. Next to their unique design, these boards feature good cooling, which in this case is all about more fan headers than you usually get at this boards price point. Other than that there is a potent power design and overall the ASUS Z97 Sabertooth appears to be a high-quality motherboard.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Best Video Cards: June 2014

We're back once again with our monthly guide to video cards and video card industry recap, this time for June of 2014.

June has been another quiet month from a product standpoint. There were no new product launches from AMD nor NVIDIA in the more exciting over-$100 market, however NVIDIA did quietly launch the GT 740 and GT 730 for the sub-$100 market.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Gigabyte BRIX Pro Review

Let's analyze the Gigabyte BRIX Pro, an ultra-compact PC kit, with an Intel Core i7-4770R CPU, two slots for DDR3 memory modules, one 2.5" bay for hard disk drive or SSD, HDMI and Mini DisplayPort outputs, and four USB 3.0 ports.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

How (and Why) to Change Your MAC Address on Windows, Linux, and Mac

Each network interface on your computer or any other networked device has a unique MAC address. These MAC addresses are assigned in the factory, but you can change, or spoof, MAC addresses in software.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

How to install Raspberry Pi camera board

The Raspberry Pi camera (Pi Cam) board was first released for sale in May 2013. This first release is equipped with a 5 Megapixel sensor, and connects through a ribbon cable to the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi. The second release of Raspberry Pi camera board, which is called Pi NoIR, has the same sensor, but without the IR filter. It has capability to see near IR wavelengths (700 - 1000 nm) like a security camera, and of course it is sacrificing the color rendition.

In this article, we will show you how to install a Raspberry Pi camera board on Raspberry Pi. We will be using the first release of Pi camera board. Once the board is installed, you will use three applications to access the board: raspistill, raspiyuv, and raspivid. The first two apps are used for capturing images, while the third app is for capturing video. The raspistill tool produces standard image files such as .jpg images, but raspiyuv gives us unprocessed raw image files from the camera.

Read full article @ Xmodulo

Intel Pentium-K G3258 20th Anniversary Processor Review

We review the Pentium G3258 (also dubbed Pentium-K) processor. So yeah, it has been an interesting series of releases from Intel the past two months. First the Haswell refresh products, then Devil's Canyon, the Core i7-4790K was released. But just for fun, Intel decided to create yet another SKU. A simple two cores Pentium processor that normally ends up in the cheaper net-tops and gear like NAS servers.

The Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition / G3258 processor features an unlocked multiplier and is all about nostalgia on a modern CPU socket with rather tremendous OC potential. That's right, you can seat this Pentium processor into a Socket LGA1150 motherboard and then have some great fun. We actually managed to overclock this 3200 MHz processor, towards 4800 MHz! The processors are now slowly becoming available and we quickly want to say thanks to Azerty.nl for supplying this processor. Now do not expect huge performance numbers with the Pentium G3258 processor, really this is a low level / budget SKU, but make no mistake, it is a capable processor alright. Intel introduced an extra K-model just for fun, as the Pentium series processors has reached its 20th Anniversary.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Intel Z97 Motherboard Round Up

The computer DIY market is an interesting paradox these days. The Intel 9 Series “Broadwell” chipset motherboards released, while Z87 boards seemingly start hitting their prime with solid BIOS and software updates. In fact, there are still quite a few excellent Z87 boards on the shelves. But it makes sense since the Z97 chipset isn’t really a major leap forward, with the two most obvious updates are of course SATA Express, and support for Devil’s Canyon CPU support.

Naturally, DIY users are wondering what makes the new Z97 chipset any better than the previous Z87 Lynx Point. To answer those questions, we’ve assembled the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H, MSI Z97 Gaming 7, ASUS Z97 Mark-I Sabertooth and ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer motherboards, for a fight to the finish, in this Intel Z97 Motherboard round up!

Read full article @ Futurelooks

Linux Mint 17: Fresh and Long-Lasting

Linux Mint 17, dubbed "Qiana," is one of the best releases from this community since Linux Mint 13 arrived in 2012 with the Cinnamon desktop. Qiana is filled with extensive improvements and embellishments to all five desktop editions. It is available in Cinnamon, Xfce, KDE, Mate and LMDE. Regardless of which desktop you favor, the core improvements are well worth the upgrade.

Read full article @ Linux Insider

MSI Z97M Gaming Preview

Also MSI has meanwhile a gaming motherboard in their portfolio, that features mATX form factor. Therefore there is an interesting mix of features mainly targeting gamers but also addressing overclockers to a certain extent. Overall we are really curious to find out what MSI came up with in case of this board and here we will have a look at features as well as layout.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Panasonic TX-32A400 Review

Would you buy a HD-ready TV? With Full HD virtually the default for a living room and 4k now creeping onto the market, the 1366x768 resolution of this telly seems almost dinosaur-like.And yet the 32A400 does demonstrate progress, with its super-slim frame and low-profile desktop stand lending it high-end looks for a relatively small outlay.Selling in the for UK£249 (where it's sold as the TX-32A400B), in the US (where it's known as the TC-32A400U) for US$199 and in Australia (where it's called the TH-32A400A) for AU$499, this is Panasonic's entry-level LED TV.The chief attractions of the 32A400 are undoubtedly its narrow bezel, small footprint and low price. Measuring 734x477x184mm, just 7.5mm along the top, and 14mm across the bottom of the screen (where the 5W stereo speakers reside), the 32A400's gloss black fascia is neither mould-breaking nor complex.However, the desktop stand the 32A400 sits upon is unusual; it has a two-pronged rectangular slab, and instead of screwing-on to the main TV on the back, the 32A400 slips onto it. It's then secured from the stand's undercarriage, though it's no trouble turning the 6kg 32A400 upside down to do so.

Read full article @ Techradar

Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD Review

Samsung SSDs have been extremely popular which is mostly due to their excellent performance but it doesn't hurt that they've marketed pretty aggressively. Their 840 series, including the EVO and PRO versions, sold very well and were looked upon favorably by many of the review sites including this one. As such, we were excited to get our hands on the new 850 PRO drive to see what Samsung has done to improve upon the 840.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Samsung 850 PRO 512GB SATA SSD Review

Although now one of the most well known SSD manufacturers on the market, just four years ago Samsung wasn’t really a name in the consumer SSD market. Despite the fact that Samsung had been one of the pioneers in the SSD industry, until the launch of the Samsung 470 most of their products went directly into the hands of system builders and OEMs while guys like Intel, OCZ and Crucial dominated the retail space. In the past two years however, Samsung has drastically changed their focus onto the retail market, quickly transforming themselves from being exclusively an OEM solutions provider into one of the most innovative and as disruptive forces in the retail SSD industry.

Read full article @ Custom PC Review

Samsung 850 PRO Review

Last year, Samsung were the first manufacturer to mass produce 24 layer V-NAND for use in enterprise solutions. Never wanting to rest on their laurels, Samsung have today unleashed an enhanced 32 layer 3D V-NAND equipped drive for the enthusiast market. Samsung tell us that switching to a 32-layer cylindrical cell structure, more cells can be stacked vertically, resulting in a smaller footprint and higher density. In short this equates to a read speed of 550MB/s backed up with a write speed of 470-550MBs while returning 100,000 IOPS Random Read Speed depending on the size of the drive chosen.

While the above figures may not appear to be too ground breaking when compared to the outgoing 840 Pro, it is the 128GB drive, the drive we have for review today) that the figures begin look more promising. The 128GB version of the 840 Pro, like most other NAND flash drives suffered from much lower write speeds compared to drives from the same family but with a higher volume. This time around though with the 850 Pro, while still a little lower than the 256GB and above drives, the write speeds are much healthier dropping just 50MB/s in comparison. This will certainly appeal to those not wanting a large drive either due to storage needs or cost but who still require good write speeds. Speeds only get better too thanks to Samsungs RAPID mode (Enabled through Magician software) and couple this with a huge 10 year warranty, Samsung have, on paper at least, a sure fire winner on their hands.

Read full article @ Vortez

Samsung 850 Pro SSD (512GB) Review

It has been over a year since the 840 Pro hit the market and competitor drives have continued to evolve since then so now it’s time for Samsung to do the same. Launching today is their new 850 Pro SSD featuring many of the aspects which made the 840 Series so attractive, mixed with some evolutions in the tech used. We will be putting it up against some of the best drives the competition can offer to see how this new model performs.

Read full article @ Hardware Heaven

Samsung 850 Pro SSD Review

Considering the breakneck one-upsmanship we saw among early SSD makers, record-setting iterations have been slower to arrive over the last two years with 2012's Samsung SSD 840 Pro series maintaining relevance among a laundry list of competing options after price cuts brought it from $1.05 per gigabyte to $0.74 a gig.

That works out to $190 for the 256GB 840 Pro, which is fair but puts the aging enthusiast series in an awkward position just beyond today's finest budget options, including Samsung's own 840 Evo ($0.57 per gig for 250GB) and the $0.43/GB Crucial MX100, which is beside the point that not everyone wants a cut-down drive.

That's not to say there isn't already a plethora of high-end SSDs. Enthusiasts have loads of options with Plextor M6S, SanDisk Extreme Pro, OCZ Vertex 460, Intel 730 Series, Crucial M550 and some we forgot to list. However, few if any models stand out as being uniquely fast in the same way that we expected a few years back.

Read full article @ Techspot

Samsung 850 Pro SSD Review

The Samsung 850 Pro 6Gbps SSD is the first SSD in the world to use 3D V-NAND. Samsung’s confidence in the 850 is evident with their 10 year warranty, speaking directly to product quality and endurance. Samsung went much further though and, before approving this memory for the retail market, mass-produced and incorporated it within data centers. By changing from a planar structure, Samsung built a 32-layer cylindrical cell structure, stacking more cells vertically and resulting in a smaller footprint and higher density. Having said this, the maximum capacity of the 850 Pro remains to be 1TB.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 Review

Samsung has been known in the smartphone and tablet market for its larger screens, and the South Korean giant has not disappointed this time around by releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2. As the name suggests it boasts a whopping 12.2-inch screen, although it's missing the S Pen stylus of the very similar Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. Other tablets of this screen size are few and far between, although the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 will give Samsung a run for its money in the 12-inch market. Samsung's continued ethos that 'bigger is better', has now reached a point where it is almost in a league of its own. Retailing at £549, $545 (around AU$995) the Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 is unlikely to be an impulse buy. However, if you were weighing up the pros and cons of splashing this much of your hard earned money on a device, you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that retailers are currently slashing the price of the tablet by almost £100. Which I personally think makes this a much better purchase.

Read full article @ Techradar

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Review

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the Apple iPad family continues to be the dominating force in the world of tablets, but the rest of us know that we have plenty of Android options to consider too. Among the most recent contenders in this touchtastic battle arena is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, the first ever tablet from Samsung that boasts the company’s signature Super AMOLED technology. It comes in both 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch variations; aside from the screen and battery size, the two models are otherwise identically-spec’d. Let’s have a closer look.

Read full article @ MEGATech

Samsung SSD 850 Pro (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) Review: Enter the 3D Era

Over the last three years, Samsung has become one of the most dominant players in the SSD industry. Samsung's strategy has been tight vertical integration ever since the beginning, which gives Samsung the ability to be in the forefront of new technologies. That is a massive advantage because ultimately all the parts need to be designed and optimized to work properly together. The first fruit of Samsung's vertical integration was the SSD 840, which was the first mass produced SSD to utilize TLC NAND and gave Samsung a substantial cost advantage. Even today, the SSD 840 and its successor, the 840 EVO, are still the only TLC NAND based SSDs shipping in high volume. Now, two years later, Samsung is doing it again with the introduction of the SSD 850 Pro, the world's first consumer SSD with 3D NAND.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Samsung SSD 850 Pro 128GB and 1TB Review

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a steady stream of new solid state drive releases, from the likes of Plextor, Crucial, and SanDisk. Today, however, Samsung is unveiling something new we think you'll really take interest in.

Up next for your reading pleasure, we have Samsung’s brand-new SSD 850 PRO series. The 128GB and 1TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO drives we’ll be showing you here are the company’s latest flagship solid state drives, targeted at client applications. Like the previously-released SSD 845 EVO series, the 850 PRO leverages Samsung’s MEX controller, but these drives are also packing bleeding-edge 32 layer, stacked, 3D V-NAND flash memory that purportedly offers better power, endurance, and performance than traditional MLC NAND...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Samsung SSD 850 Pro Review

Today Samsung is unveiling their latest SSD and successor to the mighty 840 Pro. Named the 850 Pro it is not only faster than the 840 Pro and possibly the fastest SATA SSD money can buy, but more importantly it is also one of the most reliable thanks to its use of V-NAND flash memory. For benchmaking we have the 512GB model on hand...

For a while there things were moving at breakneck speed in the Solid-State Disk business with a new record-breaker being released every other week. However for the last year or two things have slowed down in a big way. In fact it has been almost 2 years now since Samsung released its award winning SSD 840 Pro series, which to this day is still one of the best SATA high performance SSD series available.

When released back in 2012 the Samsung SSD 840 Pro series wasn’t the most aggressively priced SSD range as the focus was on performance. Back when we reviewed it the 256GB model was fetching $1.05 per gigabyte and at the time that was a good deal for such a product. Today pricing of the 840 series has dropped considerably, as the 256GB model costs just $190 or $0.74 per gigabyte.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

Samsungs 850 Pro solid-state drive reviewed

Most flash memory is limited to a single layer, but the V-NAND chips in Samsung's new 850 Pro SSD stack 32 layers on top of each other. This is next-level stuff, literally, and it's supposed to make the 850 Pro the fastest SATA drive around. We investigate.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Summertime PC Maintenance

Although PC maintenance is always important, especially with the higher end PCs that we run to play today’s games, it is especially important come summer time. Not only are we in the middle of the LAN season but also most importantly with temperatures getting warmer outside the possibility of you overheating your PC becomes more likely. Because of that, I wanted to post up a reminder to everyone to take a little time and do a little PC maintenance. To go with that I decided to put together a small write-up on a few things you should work on when doing your maintenance.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

TrueCrypt Is Dead: 4 Disk Encryption Alternatives For Windows

If you havent heard, TrueCrypt is no more. If you still have older versions of the program, you can continue to use them but be aware that there may be unfixed security issues in those versions. The safer course of action would be to migrate over to another solution entirely. You had a good run, TrueCrypt, but now its time to say farewell. For those who arent yet convinced that data encryption is necessary, you ought to check out these reasons to encrypt your digital life. Its not just for the paranoid, I assure you.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z Illuminated Blue Switch Edition Review

There are some items that just seem to get abused heavily. I had an incident with my lawnmower where I bent the blade on it by running into a rock. I was right in the middle of mowing the lawn, which was already overgrown from two weeks of ignoring it. I couldn’t simply put the mower back in the shed and leave the lawn for another day, so I had to rush to the hardware store and, luckily, I was able to buy a replacement blade and install it in about 10 minutes. This allowed me to finish my task and made me happy that I did not have to leave my lawn in shambles.

When it comes to computers, some things are repairable and there are other problems that you just have to replace parts for. Personally, if I was in the middle of an intense gaming session or a critical paper for school, I would be pretty upset. Reason being most people don’t have spare keyboards floating around and the consequences could be as small as losing a game or as big as failing an assignment. Besides my preference for mechanical switch keyboards feel a huge advantage is the durability even if you are someone who tends to be hard on the keys.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

Wicked Audio Heist Earbuds Review

Music is such an important part of many people’s lives, as we speak I am listening to an awesome playlist that helps me concentrate when writing reviews. When you have great music you want to share it with your friends. Well Wicked Audio knows this and they have come up with the Heist, which is a set of earbuds that have an in-line audio connection so that you can connectanother set of headphones or earbuds to share your music. While this is a great idea these earbuds cost under $20 so we will have to see just how well they sound.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org