Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD Radeon R9 285 Review: Feat. Sapphire R9 285 Dual-X OC
Antec GX700 Chassis Review
Corsair Graphite 780T PC Case Review
Corsair Graphite 780T Review
Corsair Graphite Series 780T Review
Corsair Graphite Series 780T Review
Cougar 700M and SPEED-L Review
Cougar 700M Mouse Review
Dance Central Spotlight review – The ultimate Kinect dancing game now on Xbox One
Deepcool Steam Castle Micro ATX Case Review
DeepCool Steam Castle Review
Everything You Need To Know About the iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus
Four Hardware Upgrades That Will Boost Your Laptop’s Battery Life
GAMDIAS ZEUS Laser Gaming Mouse Review
Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini-ITX Motherboard Review
Hands-on review: Apple Pay
Hands-on review: IDF 2014: Dell Venue 8 7000
Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E On Linux
Kingwin EZ-Clone USI-2535CLU3 Review
LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 DAS Review
Metro: Redux Benchmarked, Performance Review
MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro (072UK) Review
MSI X99S XPOWER AC (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard Review
NZXT Kraken G10 Review
NZXT Phantom 240 Mid-tower Case Review
PNY XLR8 120 GiB SSD Review
Synology DiskStaion DS115j Review
The TR Podcast 161: Haswell extremes, FX redux, and Tonga devil magic
Western Digital announces 8TB and 10TB Helium filled HDDs

AMD Radeon R9 285 Review: Feat. Sapphire R9 285 Dual-X OC

Last month AMD held their 30 years of graphics celebration, during which they announced their next Radeon video card, the Radeon R9 285. Designed to be AMD’s new $249 midrange enthusiast card, the R9 285 would be launching on September 2nd. In the process the R9 285 would be a partial refresh of their R9 280 series lineup, supplying it with a new part that would serve to replace their nearly 3 year old Tahiti GPU.

The R9 285 is something of a lateral move for AMD, which is something we very rarely see in this industry. The R9 285’s immediate predecessor, the R9 280 (vanilla) has been on the market with an MSRP of $249 for nearly 4 months now. Meanwhile the R9 285 is not designed to be meaningfully faster than the R9 280 – in fact if you looked at the raw specifications, you’d rightfully guess it would be slower. Instead the R9 285 is intended to serve as a sort of second-generation feature update to R9 280, replacing it with a card at the same price with roughly the same performance level, but with 3 years’ worth of amassed feature updates and optimizations.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Antec GX700 Chassis Review

Today I will be reviewing the Antec GX700 Chassis. Your initial impression may be that this case has no aesthetic appeal. Which is true compared to cases that are designed to show off the interior components and lighting. With those visual options also comes a higher price point. Antec chose to stick with durability and functionality over curb appeal. The more I began to tinker around and read about this case, the more I appreciated what Antec accomplished and where Antec priced this chassis. A different color option other than the military camo green would be nice but after looking at the case a little longer, I can see the scheme that Antec was aiming towards. The case is intended to give the builder a sense of durability, rugged, and "ready for combat". The case is well accented by the caution stickers on the top panel, further enforcing the scheme. The GX700 is one case to take a closer look at if you are in the market for a case designed to be durable, easy to use, and want to have a case build after build. What are we waiting for? Let us get into the good parts of the review already! I cannot wait to showcase the Antec GX700 in detail!

Read full article @ Funky Kit

Corsair Graphite 780T PC Case Review

Today we are going to take a look at the latest addition to Corsair’s vast range of PC cases, the Graphite 780T. This is the latest instalment in the Graphite series of cases which are designed to combine attractive aesthetics with cutting edge functionality and performance.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Corsair Graphite 780T Review

As Corsair’s summer product release onslaught continues, the memory giant is going big by releasing a full tower-chassis under the Graphite Series. We were mightily impressed by the miniscule Graphite 380T last month but will the same be said of today’s release?

780T is a full-tower chassis which continues the favourable trait of detachable side panels by means of tool-free mechanism. Inside this burly case high-end components can easily be hosted due to the large expanse which paves the way for extensive water-cooling support, big CPU coolers and great cable management.

Read full article @ Vortez

Corsair Graphite Series 780T Review

Corsair released the Graphite Series 780T chassis, today we review and test it. The aesthetics are fairly impressive with a big design, large see through window, latched doors, magnetic top and front mesh panels and even a fan controller. The 780T is one of x-factor products really, and will get embraced by the PC enthusiast community. The chassis is a full-tower based chassis. Let's have a peek at what Corsair has to offer shall we?

The 780T now has rounded looks and is available in black or white. It has latched easy-open side window panel that reveals huge space at the inner side, actually enough room to accommodate dual 360mm water-cooling radiators, nine expansion slots and up to nine hard drives. Also embedded is a three way built-in fan controller so you can select your airflow for the included Corsair AF-140 140mm fans. The panels are mounted in a steel and plastic based frame.

The Graphite Series 780T is the next generation of the Graphite Series 600T.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Corsair Graphite Series 780T Review

A worthy successor to the original Graphite Series 600T? Can you believe that it has been five years since Corsair made its entry into the PC chassis market with the launch of the gargantuan Obsidian Series 900D? That was a case designed to be noticed, and it wasn't long before the firm followed-up with the eye-catching Graphite Series 600T.

Those initial chart-toppers helped establish Corsair as a go-to provider of chassis solutions, however early success is arguably the easy part: staying on top is the real challenge. And has Corsair managed to do that? The company's product line certainly offers more choice than ever before, but you could argue that recent additions haven't quite lived up to the lofty expectations set by the original designs.

The Graphite Series 600T for example remains a favourite in the HEXUS labs, but the 230T was too basic in comparison, the 760T didn't quite tickle our fancy and the 380T wasn't perfect, either. We've yet to meet a worthy successor, but Corsair reckons that will change today with the introduction of the Graphite Series 780T - a case it describes as "the next generation of the popular, award-winning 600T."

Read full article @ Hexus

Cougar 700M and SPEED-L Review

The 700M is the Cougars high-end gaming mouse, which is based on a highly customizable layout. Apart from that there are 8 buttons as well as weight stones next to an 8200 DPI sensor. The structure is made from a single block of aluminum and the looks are rather aggressive. Next to the mouse we're also having a closer look at the Cougars SPEED mousepad.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Cougar 700M Mouse Review

Today in our Cougar 700M Review we take a look at this gamer mouse, along with the surface designed to match it.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

Dance Central Spotlight review – The ultimate Kinect dancing game now on Xbox One

When the Xbox One launched last year with the Kinect peripheral included with every console, many gamers resisted the Kinect's inclusion. And why wouldn't they? The new Kinect had launched without what many consider the best Kinect game series on Xbox 360: Dance Central. That hole in the lineup has been filled now that Harmonix (maker of the upcoming Fantasia: Music Evolved) has unleashed Dance Central Spotlight exclusively as a downloadable Xbox One title.

Read full article @ WP Central

Deepcool Steam Castle Micro ATX Case Review

Deepcool more recently launched their first Micro ATX chassis with a bit of funky styling and absolutely eye-catching features. This Steampunk inspired chassis is called the Steam Castle, and while it may be an mATX chassis, it certainly has a lot to offer. You will find a multitude of items, such as support for a 280mm liquid cooler, tool-free drive bays, dual pre-installed fans, LEDs on each top punk that can change colors, a built-in LED brightness/color and fan speed controller, and much more.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

DeepCool Steam Castle Review

The DeepCool Steam Castle aims to take steampunk to the main stream. Available in four different colors with elaborate looks, will it manage to deliver hip looks right out of the box while remaining functional at a competitive price point, or is it a hip shell with a boring interior?

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Everything You Need To Know About the iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus

After months and months of rumors, supposed leaks and renderings the iPhone 6 is here! Apple is releasing two iPhone models this time, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. As you can guess the iPhone 6 is the normal-size model at 4.7-inches and the iPhone 6 Plus is the larger model at 5.5-inches. Both models are pretty much the same, but we will be going over the differences between the two and all of the information you need to know about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Four Hardware Upgrades That Will Boost Your Laptop’s Battery Life

Want better laptop battery life? Hardware upgrades are much better than software tweaks for improving power efficiency. Unfortunately, not all mobile computers offer easy component upgrades. Most full-sized laptops are upgradeable though, and the process takes surprisingly little time or effort. Ultrabooks, on the other hand, require a bit more elbow grease to upgrade. Four components are relatively easy to upgrade: Hard drive WiFi card Bluetooth module Battery upgrade I also illustrate where these parts lie on an HP Pavilion 17. The upgrade process normally involves just a few screws and a single removable panel, for a full-sized laptop. Smaller notebooks, such as Ultrabooks.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

GAMDIAS ZEUS Laser Gaming Mouse Review

By the time this review gets uploaded online our copy of Destiny one of the most highly anticipated games of 2014 made/released by Bungie/Activision will be here so naturally we plan on focusing quite a bit in testing several new gaming peripherals with it (aside the usual testing we do with our favorite Planetside 2 online MMOFPS by SONY). We've also been using the beta of The Crew by Ubisoft (racing) and the alpha of Star Citizen (space simulator) by Cloud Imperium (Chris Roberts) but a complete game like Destiny which combines several elements from both the Mass Effect series and Warframe should help us push many of these peripherals to their limits. The first of these gaming peripherals we will be looking at is also perhaps the most unique looking one and as the title of this review clearly states today with us we have the ZEUS Laser Gaming Mouse by GAMDIAS.

GAMDIAS emphasizes on the fundamentals, complemented with creativity and service. GAMDIAS Technology was founded in 2012, with team of over 100 led by R.K. HAN, successfully creating the gaming brand known as GAMDIAS. Not only do we aim to set the bar for quality and practically, but also to go above and beyond in our designs. Further supplementing our motto: Gaming Art in Motion, we will continue to invest heavily on designs, transcending GAMDIAS products to an artistic pantheon. Our design team consists of a group of passionate gamers with limitless creative ideas. The design team' s mission is to highlight the special aspects of each product, just like the distinctive characteristic of the gods in Greek Mythology. Each of our gaming products is designed with a patented special feature; never ceasing to break the limitations of traditional thinking, and revolutionize the eSports industry. GAMDIAS aspires to offer its users a gaming experiences unparalleled to its predecessors. GAMDIAS will redefine the Electronic Sports (eSports) landscape for gamers worldwide. Backed by international award winning designers (Red Dot), innovative think tanks, and inspirational brand leaders, GAMDIAS will be the next generation of Gaming Gear.

If you thought that the HERMES mechanical gaming keyboard by GAMDIAS was unique in design (or strange take your pick) then you will most certainly feel the same about the ZEUS laser gaming mouse since it pretty much follows the same design path (size-wise it's roughly the same as the El'Druin by Leetgion). Specifications and features however matter most (that is if the design of the mouse is good for use) and GAMDIAS has done a very good job there since they have equipped the ZEUS with the Avago ADNS-9800 8200DPI laser sensor, 3 adjustable side expansions, 11 buttons (9 programmable), 11 million clicks switches, adjustable weight system, 32MHz ARM Cortez processor and 512KB of onboard memory for storing your settings. Overall it seems that GAMDIAS has once again released a feature-rich product (just what you'd expect from something bearing the name of the father of the Greek Gods) but what really matters is how they work out in the end and whether or not the shape of the mouse is what it should be so once again the time has come for us to find out.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini-ITX Motherboard Review

The mini-ITX form factor has taken off in a big way. Packing a lot of power in a small space, these 17 x 17 centimeter squares have enabled new concentrations of computing power. Generally, you have to pay quite a bit for the privilege of shrinking everything down, but Gigabyte has a model in their Ultra Durable line of motherboards that brings a "Z" chipset to the ~$130 price point. With high-efficiency MOSFETs and on-board WIFI/Bluetooth, USB 3.0 and two gigabit LAN controllers (Intel and Atheros), the Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI is a reasonably priced entry into the overclocking-capable Z87 chipset. Is it worth it? Follow along as Benchmark Reviews takes a closer look.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Hands-on review: Apple Pay

Apple Pay is somehow both confusing and blindingly simple at the same time.On the one hand, mobile payments have been around for so long without gaining any traction whatsoever - so how can Apple do anything different? On the other hand, when you see it in action, this couldn't be a simpler system. Tap the phone or press a button online and you're up and running.The confusion comes in the setup, where you'll be able to add as many credit and debit cards as possible to your Passbook to use at checkout. How do you get them on there? Can you use any of them?

Read full article @ Techradar

Hands-on review: IDF 2014: Dell Venue 8 7000

Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, but rarely does that innovation look as good as it does with the world's thinnest tablet, the Dell Venue 8 7000 series, announced on Tuesday at IDF. And the reduction to a svelte 6mm is only the beginning. The real innovation isn't exactly something you can see...well, unless you snap a picture that is. The Dell Venue 8 7000 is the first tablet to use Intel RealSense, a software that uses an 8MP camera and two 720p depth sensors on the back panel to grab depth and length information up to a range of 10 meters. Want to filter out color by depth? How about measure dimensions without a ruler? Or, and I'm just spitballing here, refocus an image after it's shot?The Venue 8 can do these and much more thanks to the Android 4.4 Kitkat OS and Intel Moorfield SoC with a quad-core Dual Atom processor that will ultimately make the Venue 8 a pretty compelling package when it comes out in time for the 2014 holiday season.

Read full article @ Techradar

Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E On Linux

With the X99 burned-up motherboard problem of last week appearing to be behind us with no further issues when using a completely different X99 motherboard, here's the first extensive look at the Core i7 5960X Haswell-E processor running on Ubuntu Linux.

At the end of August when the processor was introduced I wrote all about the i7-5960X and X99 on launch day with the exciting details. The Core i7 5960X is an eight core unlocked processor with Hyper Threading to yield 16 threads, runs at a 3.0GHz base frequency with 3.5GHz turbo frequency, boasts 20MB of Intel Smart Cache, 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, and uses the LGA 2011-v3 socket. This launch is also Intel's first desktop platform using DDR4 system memory. Intel is also launching the Core i7 5820K and 5830K for the LGA 2011-v3 socket as six-core processors (plus Hyper Threading). All three of these processors have a 140 Watt TDP.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Kingwin EZ-Clone USI-2535CLU3 Review

There’s been numerous times when I’ve had to clone a hard drive for whatever reason and it’s a tedious and just a long process. To do it you need software, I use Acronis, then you have pull your computer out, open the case, find cables for the hard drives, find the power connectors and then connect the drives and then you can start the cloning process after you start up the program. I can remember one computer I used for this wouldn’t recognize my USB mouse and I had a dig out an ancient PS/2 ball mouse to use with Acronis, it was just all a big hassle really. I did it that way for many years and I didn’t like it, there had to be an easier way and there really wasn’t until now.

Today for review I’ve got a product that I just love and I think it’s something that we should have had long ago as it’s one of those things that’s very much needed to make life simpler. Kingwin has recently introduced the EZ-Clone which is a tiny hard drive duplicator, with the press of a button you can clone a hard drive very easily. The EZ-Clone can also be used as an external drive to connect to your computer over USB 3.0, so it’s dual use really. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ DragonSteelMods

LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 DAS Review

Seagate's premium storage brand, LaCie, has been introducing a wide variety of Thunderbolt 2 products since late last year. Today, we are seeing the launch of a hybrid direct-attached storage (DAS) unit with both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 connections in the d2 Thunderbolt 2. The differentiating aspect is the availability of a full-speed PCIe SSD add-on which adds another storage module at the expense of the USB 3.0 port. We took the unit for a spin using our Windows-based Thunderbolt 2 setup. Read on to see how the unit performs.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Metro: Redux Benchmarked, Performance Review

Already one of the most iconic and atmospheric first-person shooters around, Metro has received some post-release polish that should present a greater challenge for today's GPUs. Metro Redux features improved versions of both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, including completely remastered visuals.

Read full article @ Techspot

MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro (072UK) Review

If you are in the market for the 'ultimate no expense spared desktop replacement laptop' then today's review will certainly interest you. The new MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro ships with the latest high end mobile hardware. How does this checklist sound? 32GB of DDR3 memory, 8GB Nvidia GTX880M graphics, Intel Core i7 4710HQ quad core processor, 4x Raid 0 Solid State Drives, 1TB storage drive, Steelseries keyboard, Dynaudio sound system with Killer AC capable wireless.So now we have you drooling let us take a closer look...

Read full article @ KitGuru

MSI X99S XPOWER AC (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard Review

Every major motherboard brand has a particular flagship board that targets overclocking on Intel’s new HEDT X99 platform. Gigabyte have their X99 SOC-FORCE, ASUS have the Rampage V Extreme and ASRock have the X99 OC Formula. Today we are looking at MSI’s flagship OC board, the X99S XPOWER AC. Despite being an “overclocking” board the X99 XPOWER AC gets endowed with a lot more consumer-friendly features than you might expect. The AC in its name denotes the fact this board ships with an 802.11 AC WiFi module and antennae. MSI have also equipped their AudioBoost audio package, a shed-load of USB 3.0 connectivity, dual Intel Gigabit NICs and of course a stylish design. However, overclocking features make up the DNA of this board. MSI calls the overclocking features “OC Essentials” and they are mainly buttons, check points and LEDs. There are also less visible things like CPU overcurrent protection built into the board and even a USB flash drive for saving BIOS OC profiles.

Read full article @ eTeknix

NZXT Kraken G10 Review

After my review of the Kraken X31, I was curious about the G10. The Kraken G10 is NZXT's answer to cooling your GPU, but the G10 is not a cooler by itself. It is simply a bracket (with a fan) that allows you to mount any Asetek-style CPU cooler to a wide variety of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. If you are into gaming, protein folding, or anything that puts a high load on your GPU, then you may be interested in what the G10 can do.

The G10 has been out for several months now, and has gotten many positive reviews, and I was impressed enough with the performance of the X31 that I decided to see what the combination of the X31 and G10 could do for my GPU. The G10 is readily available and comes in four colors: red, black, white, and blue. Today we have the black version.

Read full article @ OCC

NZXT Phantom 240 Mid-tower Case Review

The NZXT Phantom 240 $69.99 price tag offers the signature curved Phantom styling in a glossy white body while also keeping the essential feature-set that made NZXT popular among enthusiasts.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

PNY XLR8 120 GiB SSD Review

There are many components in a PC that can be upgraded to make it faster, but none are as noticeable in the real world as upgrading a hard drive to a solid state drive. They have come down significantly in price over the last few years, so it's now cheaper than ever to upgrade your PC. Units in the 120 GiB range still offer low price, excellent cost/benefit ratio, and have enough space to be used as boot drive. Today, we will test the PNY XLR8 120 GiB unit.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

Synology DiskStaion DS115j Review

Today we are checking out a new and very affordable single bay NAS product from Synology known as the DiskStation DS115j. This NAS device is ideal for those that want the convenience of network attached storage without the typically high price tag that goes along with it. Providing the same functionality as the bigger more expensive models, the DS115j certainly has a lot to offer...

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

The TR Podcast 161: Haswell extremes, FX redux, and Tonga devil magic

This episode is essentially review heaven. We've got new CPUs from Intel and AMD, not to mention a Radeon graphics card with new silicon. This episode also features an appearance from Asus' Raja Gill, who joined us to discuss the new Asus X99 Deluxe motherboard.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Western Digital announces 8TB and 10TB Helium filled HDDs

Leapfrog's Seagate's recent 8TB HDD announcement. Western Digital subsidiary HGST has announced that it has started shipping 8TB Ultrastar He8 HDDs and begun sampling 10TB capacity drives to add to the range. These drives are the second generation Helium filled devices from HGST. Last November it managed to produce 6TB drives with its first generation technology.

HGST claims that its Helium filled drives are the best choice for high-capacity, high-reliability and performance. Its hermetically sealed 'HelioSeal' technology will thus be the cornerstone of all future high capacity HDDs coming from the company. The use of the inert gas is said to bring additional benefits of "significantly lowering power consumption" and cooling requirements.

However Seagate beat it to the punch by managing to produce an 8TB hard drive last month; "Seagate scoffs at Helium," reported ComputerWorld at the time. Seagate still uses air within its drives but thanks to shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology it is expected to create drives of capacities approaching 20TB by 2020. The 'shingled' term refers to how data tracks overlap on a platter like shingles on a roof. That helps boost bit density. Seagate still has the option of using a gas other than just air in the future.

Read full article @ Hexus