Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD Radeon Gallium3D Is Catching Up & Sometimes Beating Catalyst On Linux
Aorus Thunder K7 Mechanical Keyboard, M7 MMO Mouse & P3 Mouse Pad Review
ASRock X99 Extreme11 Motherboard Review
ASUS ROG Gladius Gaming Mouse Review
be quiet! Silent Base 800 Chassis Review
BenQ BL3200PT 32" Professional Monitor Review
Building A Gaming PC For Under $400 With SteamOS
Corsair DDR4 16GB Vengeance LPX 2800C16 Memory Kit Review
Corsair Neutron XT (240GB, 480GB & 960GB) SSD Review: Phison S10 Debuts
Corsair Neutron XT 240GB Review
Corsair Neutron XT SSD Review (240GB)
Corsairs Carbide Series Air 240 reviewed
Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Motherboard Review
HTC Double Dip case for the HTC One
MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Review
Nvidia MFAA Multi-Frame Samples AA - A Closer Look
Tech Primer: What you need to know about DDR4 memory
Toast wood cover for Surface Pro 3 Review
Windows Technical Preview Build 9879: The Morning After

AMD Radeon Gallium3D Is Catching Up & Sometimes Beating Catalyst On Linux

Last week I posted the original 16-way CS:GO and TF2 Radeon Gallium3D results while today's numbers have the Catalyst result added in using the fglrx packaged driver for Ubuntu 14.10. As mentioned in the earlier article, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive were chosen as being two popular Steam on Linux games with CS:GO having only been released a brief time ago for Linux. Both games also meet our requirements for automation and interaction with the Phoronix Test Suite for fully automated and reproducible performance benchmarking.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Aorus Thunder K7 Mechanical Keyboard, M7 MMO Mouse & P3 Mouse Pad Review

Gigabyte may be best known for its award winning motherboards and graphics cards, but the brand is home to a host of products, from entire systems to high-end gaming gear. Today we're taking a look at thee of the latter, sold under its Aorus subsidiary: the Aorus Thunder K7 backlit mechanical gaming keyboard with a detachable macro/numpad, the 16-button Thunder M7 MMO gaming mouse, and the meter-long P3X gaming mouse pad.

Read full article @ Techspot

ASRock X99 Extreme11 Motherboard Review

With the highest possible compute performance that consumers can purchase, Intel’s Haswell-E processors and the X99 chipset make a viable combination for users with demanding workloads. If the price, features, and performance are right, there’s nothing stopping a semi-professional buying a consumer-grade motherboard to house their LGA2011-3 CPU and DDR4 memory.

Bearing that in mind, ASRock has given its X99 series of motherboards the ‘Extreme11′ treatment. What exactly does that mean? It translates into a high-end, feature-heavy motherboard whose secret sauce is deployed in the form of an LSI SAS 3008 storage controller to provide eight SAS 12Gbps connections.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASUS ROG Gladius Gaming Mouse Review

The ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) line of products is no stranger to gaming peripherals, however recently, ASUS has turned to it’s newer product line, Strix, to release most of it’s gaming oriented products. This made the release of the ASUS ROG Gladius mouse confusing at first, but after realizing that this is ASUS’ premium mouse option it only made sense to put it in ASUS’ most prominent line of products. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at the ASUS ROG Gladius Gaming Mouse.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

be quiet! Silent Base 800 Chassis Review

The be quiet! Silent Base 800 uses a steel chassis with plastic panels that carry plenty of sound deadening material. At the front of the case there are stealth doors that cover the optical drive bays and main air filter.

Read full article @ KitGuru

BenQ BL3200PT 32" Professional Monitor Review

With the rising stars of 4K, G-SYNC, FreeSync and 120Hz hogging the headlines, professional monitors like BenQ’s new BL3200PT have gone largely unnoticed. However, while gamers have been driving many of the display innovation boundaries around TN panels, image quality focused products have still been making some substantial headway.

Every year the average screen resolution used by consumers grows, while the average price per pixel gets lower and lower. Not that long ago a 1920x1200 monitor was considered large, and the sole domain of professionals who required all that space for work-related tasks. Today it is not that uncommon to see 2560x1440 resolution in the workplace with even higher '4K' 3840 × 2160 resolutions are starting to trickle into certain professional environments. This increase in resolution is certainly a boon for productivity, but in certain situations, that increase in resolution requires an even greater increase in overall screen size or productivity can actually plummet. This smaller dot pitch phenomena has been known for some time now, but with the exception of some very niche monitors it has been largely ignored by manufactures. After all, it is a small subset of people and only minor groups of consumers that are negatively impacted by higher PPI counts.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Building A Gaming PC For Under $400 With SteamOS

Over the past few months I’ve been hearing some buzz about the new SteamOS from, you guessed it, Steam. If you’re a gamer there’s no doubt that you’re familiar with Steam, and you also know that it runs on Windows. The SteamOS, is in essence, it’s own operating system, at least more or less. The SteamOS runs on top of Debian 7, which is one of the many forms of Linux. Though to get the Steam OS up and running you don’t need to be familiar with Linux at all. Today I want to put together a complete system from the ground up with the intention of running it as a dedicated SteamOS box. The plan is to use this to play my Steam games while sitting on the couch, much like if I were playing on a console system like the PlayStation 4 or XBOX One.

In addition to wanting to play my games while sitting on the couch I wanted to keep the cost of the build comparable to what the latest generation of console systems cost. Taking a quick look around, a basic XBOX One retails for as little as $399.98 over at Amazon.com. The PlayStation 4 is remarkably the same price as the XBOX One, $399.99. Since both of the current generation console systems are available for ~$400, so that’s what the Steam Box budget is going to be today. If we’re going to be building a system from the ground up in the realm of $400.00, we may have to trim a few corners from what we would like to build. Though we should be able to build a pretty solid gaming system for that if we do it right.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Corsair DDR4 16GB Vengeance LPX 2800C16 Memory Kit Review

DDR4 has finally hit the big masses with the release of Intel's high end X99 platform aka Haswell-E. Besides the massive available bandwidth these DDR4 modules can also pack a far higher density per stick. All this goodness is available at your disposal while requiring a mere 1.2Volts. Only drawback, as per each technology at launch is the high retail price. Today we have a look at CORSAIR's mainstream kit: the Vengeance LPX series, however mainstream doesn't necessarily imply low speeds. The kit we are reviewing today runs out of the box at 2800MHz; not uber high end speeds though more than suitable to satisfy both the tweakers and the die-hard enthusiasts.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Corsair Neutron XT (240GB, 480GB & 960GB) SSD Review: Phison S10 Debuts

The ugly truth is that the SSD market has been tough for almost all the typical PC component vendors lately. With Samsung, SanDisk, and Micron/Crucial being serious about the client market, its not easy for the rest to find a way to provide any substantial advantage over the big brands. The fab owners will always enjoy a cost advantage, which is why we have seen a few companies backing off from the market and many more for whom SSDs have become just another series in the pool of products. This is what could be said to have happened at Corsair. While the company has never been super aggressive on the SSD side, the past year or so has been very quiet, but that changes with the Neutron XT. Read on to find out more about Corsairs latest SSD and the launch vehicle of Phisons brand new S10 controller.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Corsair Neutron XT 240GB Review

Jumping into the premium SSD fray in a big way. Component manufacturer Corsair is jumping back into the solid-state drive (SSD) fray with the announcement of the Neutron XT - destined to become the highest-performing consumer SSD in its arsenal.

Said Neutron XT is due to be made available in the January 2015 timeframe, but Corsair wants to show the progress it has made with respect to speed and consistency. Powering the Neutron XT - which is to debut in 240GB, 480GB and 960GB flavours - is a new controller from Phison.

Corsair has teamed up with Phison for initial exclusivity for its all-new PS3110-S10 controller. Touting four cores, class-leading performance, enterprise-level features and advanced wear-levelling techniques, on-paper specifications are certainly premium.

Read full article @ Hexus

Corsair Neutron XT SSD Review (240GB)

If we were to look at the flash controller hierarchy, Phison has typically placed as a mid-tier company. We met with Phison at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California, this past August and they spoke of a new controller that might move them up in the stack, the Phison Quad-Core PS3110 6Gbps controller. Capable of 550MB/s read, 530MB/s write, over 100K IOPS, with features such as AES 256-Bit encryption, compatible with the latest SLC, MLC and TLC memory, and capable of accommodating single form factors of up to 2TB, this controller seemed to be a definite step forward and we looked forward to getting it on our Test Bench.

Although we are sure many will follow suit in time, the Corsair Neutron XT 240GB SSD sample that we have in our hands for this report, is the first to be seen with the Phison PS3110 controller and should be available at the time, or shortly after, this launch. Having put this SSD through its paces over the past few days, we think that you just might be as surprised as we are to see a new SSD released that definitely jumps into that top-tier that so few other SSDs have been capable of.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Corsairs Carbide Series Air 240 reviewed

The Carbide Series Air 240 is a small-form-factor case with an interesting dual-chamber design. We loaded it up with our Casewarmer system and took it for a spin.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Motherboard Review

Gigabyte’s Z97 motherboard line has been out for a while now, but they have recently introduced “Black Edition’s” to their Ultra Durable Z97 line. These motherboards include the Z97X-UD5H-Bk and Z97X-UD3H-BK. So what does the “Black Edition” mean? Gigabyte Black Edition motherboards have been tested for an extra 168 hours (7 days) to ensure premium quality. During the 168 hour test, each motherboard needs to pass rigorous, full system validation testing for 1 full week. GIGABYTE has built a custom testing facility at their Taiwan (Nanping) factory. A Certificate of Validation is included with every board, issued by the GIGABYTE factory and signed by the manufacturing VP & GM to indicate that each board has passed their highest test standards. The really shows Gigabyte’s commitment to quality and ensures your Black Edition motherboard will last. Today we are taking a look at the Z97X-UD3H-BK that features 3-way CrossFire or 2-way SLI, SATA Express support, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, M.2 support and much more. Let’s jump in!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

HTC Double Dip case for the HTC One

It's time once again to check out another case for the HTC One for Windows. Since making its ways from Verizon to AT&T and soon to T-Mobile, we've been giving you a small taste of the wealth of cases that are available for it. This time around, we are reviewing the HTC Double Dip hard case. It's a lightweight, playful case that gives you the option to change the look of your phone in seconds.

Read full article @ Windows Central

MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Review

Thanks to the Twin Frozr V cooling solution, 6+2 phase VRM, and Military Class components, MSI's GTX 970 Gaming 4G delivers excellent overclocking results all the way around. This card is the highest clocking card I have tested to date, reaching boost clock speeds on the core over 1600MHz and over 2050MHz on the 4GB of GDDR5 memory. What this can do for you is generate an increased level of FPS that drives performance to a level close to if not equal to the results of the GTX 980 Gaming 4G. In the 3DMark Fire Strike test the GTX 970 Gaming 4G outperformed a stock GTX 980. That is pretty impressive, to say the least. Doing some quick polls around different websites it seems that the 1607MHz clock on this core seems to be at the upper end of the range for overclocking on air, with the majority of clock speeds in the mid 1500MHz range. Still not bad.

Read full article @ OCC

Nvidia MFAA Multi-Frame Samples AA - A Closer Look

Today an article slash guide dedicated on a new anti-aliasing mode that Nvidia has released. MFAA or better known as Multi-Frame Samples Anti Aliasing offers MSAA quality at a way less shorted impact on performance. In this guide - review - article (whatever you like to name it) we'll show you the requirements and initial steps to get MFAA going. Then we'll also show a handful of benchmarks as we put the new AA mode to the test. MFAA will be available for Maxwell based GPUs on Nvidia Geforce graphics cards, please understand that this MFAA mode thus is Maxwell exclusive. The first implementation of MFAA is compatible with GeForce GTX 980, GTX 970, GTX 980M, and GTX 970M GPUs, and supports the following technologies and platforms:

Multisampling anti-aliasing (2x or greater)
NVIDIA Adaptive VSync
NVIDIA Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR)
NVIDIA G-SYNC
NVIDIA Optimus
DirectX 10/11
Standard VSync on/off
Ultra-high resolutions, including 4K
Virtual Reality

Read full article @ Guru3D

Tech Primer: What you need to know about DDR4 memory

From a physical standpoint, DDR4 is the same width as DDR3, but is slightly taller by about .9mm. The main physical difference between DDR3 and DDR4 is that DDR4 uses 288 pins compared to the 240 pins on DDR3 and the key is in a different location. Though there are ton of changes, the four major improvements of DDR4 SDRAM can be summed up in lower operating voltage, increased power saving enhancements, increased frequency, and improved chip density.

Read full article @ Techspot

Toast wood cover for Surface Pro 3 Review

When you spend $800 or more on a Surface Pro 3, you want take measures to protect it from harm. But often, a cover makes it heavier, reduces certain functionality or just takes away from the aesthetics of the beautifully-crafted device. The Toast wood cover for the Surface Pro 3 does nothing of such. Not only does it protect the body while keeping it light and slim, but it also enhances the Surface's form by adding a skin of natural wood.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Windows Technical Preview Build 9879: The Morning After

This one ain't pretty. So I think it's fair to say that we've taken a major step back in this latest build of the Windows Technical Preview. Obviously, there are some nice improvements here—and the seismic shift that's happening with OneDrive—but the big news here, perhaps, is that this is the first build that isn't stable or reliable enough to use regularly. And unless this is fixed soon, I may have to take the unusual step of moving back to a previous build, or to Windows 8.1.

Read full article @ WinSupersite