Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

19 Intel Z97 chipset motherboards review: testing the new generation
ADATA XPG SX900 SSD Review
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Review
Asus Z97-A
Can a Lumia 1520 Replace a Tablet?
Cougar MX500 Review
CRYORIG R1 Universal Review
DimasTech Test/Bench Table Review
FreeSync approved: Adaptive Sync added to DisplayPort spec
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force Motherboard Review
Hands-on with PCLinuxOS 2014.05 KDE and LXDE: The Linux with something for everyone
Haswell Refresh: Intels New Z97 Platform Explored
How to customize your Ubuntu desktop in 6 steps
HyperX Event at 2BY2
Intel Devils Canyon i7 will be its first off-the-shelf 4GHz processor
Kingston M.2 Sata SSD: a quick look at engineering sample
Mionix Nash 20 Headset Review
MSI Z97 MPower MAX AC Motherboard Review
PAPAGO! GoLife Extreme Full HD Action Camera Review
Sennheiser Momentum Headphone Review
Sentey Aphelion Elite Gamer Series Mouse Review
Silicon Power Superior SDXC UHS-I U3 64GB Flash Memory Review
The Illusion of Overclocking Support
Want To Try Ubuntu Touch? Heres How

19 Intel Z97 chipset motherboards review: testing the new generation

Yesterday Intel introduced its new processors which are a refresh of the current Haswell chips. Along with these new processors two new motherboard chipsets are being introduced, the H97 and the Z97. For many of the motherboard manufacturers this is the time to introduce their new motherboards to replace the current H87 and Z87 based models. We compared no less than 19 boards from ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

ADATA XPG SX900 SSD Review

Today we are taking a look at ADATA's performance SSD, the XPG SX900. This drives offers blazing fast speed at a price that is affordable for just about any budget. Read on to see how it stacks up.

Read full article @ TechwareLabs.com

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Review

ASRock's gaming motherboards are meanwhile well known for coming with a really decent feature mix and apart from that also the price should be on a really reasonable level. At a first glance it looks like ASRock sticks with this receipe offering for instance a SATA Express port as well as an M.2 Slot. Other than that this board looks really nice and we're rather curious what else ASRock has to offer with this motherboard.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Asus Z97-A

With the Z87 launch, Asus made a few big changes with their mainstream motherboard line, the biggest being the change to the gold color scheme. That change came with a mixed response but the high quality and big feature set that Asus includes on all of their boards they were still very popular. With the Z97 launch, they have stuck with the gold theme but they have softened the color slightly to make it a little less polarizing. Today I will be taking a deeper look at the Z97-A, one of Asus’s mid ranged mainstream boards. I can’t wait to see what they changed for the Z97 launch and to see how the softer gold looks as well.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Can a Lumia 1520 Replace a Tablet?

In the midst of another busy business travel season, I'm working on my long-term goal to pack ever-lighter, and bring as little with me as possible. And though my own peculiar needs limit some of what I can do, one possibility has me intrigued: Could one use the Nokia Lumia 1520 as a tablet, and replace two—possibly three—devices with just one?

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Cougar MX500 Review

The Cougar MX500 is a mainstream chassis for mainstream gamers. Without any crazy bells and whistles, it offers everything you need for a clean, functional system. We dig right in to figure out whether it also has everything we would expect a chassis of its price-point to feature.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

CRYORIG R1 Universal Review

CRYORIG and their R1 Universal have redefined what makes a high-end air cooler. Packing some serious features and never before seen memory clearance on a cooler of this size, it not only performs like a champ, it could make the competition appear obsolete in comparison.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

DimasTech Test/Bench Table Review

For anyone, like enthusiast overclockers or reviewers... really any people who need to regularly and quickly change components DimasTech have created a selection of "test benches". Essentially a replacement for a traditional chassis they allow easy access to all the key components while also providing an area for the more static items and wiring. Today we take a look at their EasyXL Test/Bench table.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

FreeSync approved: Adaptive Sync added to DisplayPort spec

PC gaming animation may soon become more fluid than ever, thanks to a development just announced by the folks at the VESA display standards organization. VESA has officially added a feature called Adaptive Sync to the DisplayPort 1.2a specification, which means that a G-Sync-style adaptive refresh mechanism could be built into nearly every new desktop monitor in the coming months and years.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force Motherboard Review

A few years back GIGABYTE unveiled the X58A-OC, this was the first board in the ‘OC’ series of motherboards. The X58A-OC was a very stripped down board that had only the bare essentials to it. Since the X58A-OC GIGABYTE has been including the mainstream features that will allow the OC motherboards to fit into a system for day to day usage. Today we have the latest iteration of the OC series, the GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force. The GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force is based on the latest and greatest Intel Z97 chipset with all the bells and whistles that come with it...

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Hands-on with PCLinuxOS 2014.05 KDE and LXDE: The Linux with something for everyone

With MiniMe, LXDE, MATE, KDE and Full Monty versions, there's a size and style for everyone in this distribution family.

Read full article @ ZDNet

Haswell Refresh: Intels New Z97 Platform Explored

Nearly six years have passed since the Core i7 series debuted as a 45nm part on the LGA1366 platform. Codenamed Bloomfield, Intel's Nehalem-based quad-core lineup included the celebrated Core i7-920 and has since been refined over many iterations through Intel's tick-tock philosophy, which follows every architectural update with a die shrink.

Today's release isn't a tick or a tock, it's simply a refresh -- like what we saw with Sandy Bridge in 2011 when Intel released the Core i7-2600K in January, then refreshed it with the 2700K in October. Those new CPUs offered a measly 100MHz speed bump and based on what we've seen, we don't expect much more from the updated Haswell parts.

Read full article @ Techspot

How to customize your Ubuntu desktop in 6 steps

Ubuntu is a great Linux distribution for users who want an easy-to-use interface and is arguably the best distribution for a user new to the Linux world.

Read full article @ Muktware

HyperX Event at 2BY2

The HyperX team introduced to the Belgian press last week their new lineup. Biggest novelty was the side step from the traditional Kingston HyperX branding. HyperX is a standalone brand from now and is mainly focusing on gamers and affiliated markets. Edward, the EMEA business manager was present, together with most of the Kingston UK team and the Dutch Lewis PR crew. The event location was at 2BY2, one of Belgians greatest hardware distributors.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Intel Devils Canyon i7 will be its first off-the-shelf 4GHz processor

It is also thought that it will be able to surpass 5GHz using air cooling. Chinese tech site EXP Review believes that the upcoming Intel Devil's Canyon chips could surpass 5GHz using just air cooling techniques. An Intel PDF has been unearthed which is thought to detail the Core i7-4790K and Core i5-4690K chips and they represent much more of an uplift in clock speeds compared to the Haswell refresh we have seen previously.

You can see the slide below detailing the two first Devil's Canyon chips (it's only just readable so click it to enlarge to full size).

Read full article @ Hexus

Kingston M.2 Sata SSD: a quick look at engineering sample

Intel’s 9-series chipset has launched and one of the most interesting features that it delivers is native support for M.2 SSDs. Devices using the M.2 (formerly NGFF) connector can differ in their connection to the chipset. Two common approaches used today are the M.2 PCIe variant, which uses PCIe connections, and M.2 SATA, which operates via a SATA controller commonly found on 2.5″ SSDs. We managed to bag an early engineering sample of an upcoming Kingston drive that uses the M.2 SATA approach. Let’s take a look at what it has to offer.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Mionix Nash 20 Headset Review

In the wake of Zardon’s amazing Top 10 listing of the greatest headphones 2014 (http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/highlights/zardon/best-headphones-money-can-buy-2014/) we look at a much more affordable pair of headphones in this review. No more Grado or Sennheiser headphones weighing in at well over £1,000 as Mionix are aiming the ‘regular luxury’ part of the market. Will the £100 Nash 20 be heard above the crowd?

Read full article @ KitGuru

MSI Z97 MPower MAX AC Motherboard Review

The MSI Z97 Mpower MAX not only looks but also feels like it was made after thoughtful deliberation, improving heavily upon the previous Z87 MPower MAX in some respects and integrating with a rich software and UEFI functionality.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

PAPAGO! GoLife Extreme Full HD Action Camera Review

Have you ever gone on a bike ride through the woods or torn down the slopes on your snowboard and wished you could capture all of that action in glorious full HD to share with your friends and family? The market for action cameras continues to grow and one of the more compelling offerings that we’ve seen is the PAPAGO! GoLife Extreme, an ultralight and rugged camera that was “designed for intense outdoor sports.” Let’s see if it really is a barrel of fun.

Read full article @ MEGATech

Sennheiser Momentum Headphone Review

A few years ago, good audio and great style never seemed to mix until Beats and Monster introduced their popular Beats line taking the consumer audio market by storm. Nowadays, headphones have become a bit of a fashion item. Many industry oriented audio companies are starting to bring their expertise to the consumer market, offering fashionable and high quality products aimed at the mainstream consumer. One such manufacturer is Sennheiser, a German company whose products are known throughout the industry to offer some of the best audio equipment around. Today we are reporting on the Sennheiser Momentum (http://technologyx.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=c9c1ac805f&e=312ec141fb) , possibly the first upper tier headphone Sennheiser’s produced with the mainstream consumer in mind.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Sentey Aphelion Elite Gamer Series Mouse Review

Sentey is a US based company with regional sales offices worldwide, selling high quality gaming cases, power supplies, and now peripheral devices to gamers and elite users all over the world. You may be more familiar with Sentey's power supplies and cases; the mice and keyboards recently brought to market haven't even found their way to Newegg yet. It seems more and more companies are coming to where the "quick" money is made in the peripheral market of mice, keyboards, mouse pads, and other less component type devices. Looking at the Sentey page, or perhaps on their Facebook page, there seems to be quite the range of priced products. Today, we will be looking at what appears to be the lower tier mouse, the Sentey Aphelion Elite. Don't take the phrase "lower tier" to be so negative; I refer to it as such as it is the most affordable mouse Sentey currently offers. In this case it is an affordable $49.99 gamer mouse with on the fly DPI and additional programmable buttons.

Read full article @ OCC

Silicon Power Superior SDXC UHS-I U3 64GB Flash Memory Review

High school calculus. These three words may resonate differently with different people; for me, it was really a love-hate relationship. I loved that course, because I actually like math. At the same time, I did not like that course, because I did not understand what half the stuff meant until years after I have entered engineering in university. One of the topics discussed in the curriculum was optimization. Basically, in order to find the point in the graph where the input variable produces the highest corresponding out, simply take derivative of the formula about the input variable, set the derivative equal to zero, and solve for the input variable. If you have no idea what I just wrote, basically, optimization is just about finding the sweet spot. Simple enough, right? Well, a few months ago, in my fourth year Electrical Engineering class in designing wireless communication systems, the very type of question was asked on a quiz. While most students in high school could probably have solved it in about two minutes, I had some real trouble recalling the product rule and chain rule, so it took me over half an hour to figure out the right answer (I did the rest of the quiz in less than ten minutes, and I ended up with an A+ in that course). The sad part is, apparently, the majority of the class got that question wrong. In the real world, optimization -- or finding the sweet spot -- is something we evaluate more often than we think, even if you have no idea how to take the derivative, or recall any details on the product rule and chain rule. Recently, Silicon Power sent over their latest Superior SDXC UHS-I U3 64GB card for review. Sure, it is not as fast as the Kingston SDXC UHS-I U3 64GB I have reviewed back in April. But for half the price of the competition, do we have a classic case of optimization in our hands? Read on to find out!

Read full article @ APH Networks

The Illusion of Overclocking Support

People that have followed this site and Ninjalane.com before it will know that I’m an overclocker. For awhile I had a fairly active team and even attempted to qualify for some of the larger overclocking events like the MSI MOA and a few Gigabyte competitions. As with any hobby things tend to start small while you are learning and grow with your interest.

My introduction into overclocking was out of curiously and the allure of free performance. Since then I have overclocked almost everything from a 3DFX Voodoo card to a handful of specialized video cards including the MSI Lightning and EVGA Classified. Motherboards and processors tend to be what I overclock the most and I find enjoyment in tweaking and tuning systems for the best performance and sometimes, to the edge of stability.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Want To Try Ubuntu Touch? Heres How

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is hard at work on Ubuntu Touch – an operating system aimed for smartphones and tablets. Theyve even released some images that can be installed on the Nexus 4, the Nexus 7 (2013 WiFi only), and the Nexus 10. Theres also unofficial support for the Nexus 5, which we reviewed, and Nexus 7 (2013 WiFi+LTE). If you dont have any of these devices, dont worry – you can still try out the mobile operating system using an emulator on your Ubuntu computer.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf