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Here today's reviews and articles:

AData Premier SP550 240GB SSD Review
aLLreLi CP0037 8GB Digital Voice Recorder Review
Amazon 7-inch Fire Tablet Review
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Extreme Review
Corsair Scimitar RGB Gaming Mouse Review
Crucial BX200 240GB / 480GB review: new budget-SSD
Fallout 4 Benchmarked
Fractal Design Core 500
Fractal Design Core 500 Review
G.SKILL Ripjaws Gaming Peripherals Review
Install GIMP 2.8.16 on Ubuntu 15.10
Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet
MSI Z170A SLI Plus Motherboard Review
SanDisk Z400s SSD Review
SilverStone Raven X RVX01 Review

AData Premier SP550 240GB SSD Review

The SSD segment has seen a good amount of contraction over the last two years and that trend has continued as of late. With drive technology hitting the limits of SATA 6Gbps, SATA Express being treated like a leper by most companies and the expensive NVMe just starting to make inroads, some may even say the mainstream and slightly higher end segments are experiencing a bit of stagnation. This has actually led to a bit of a renaissance within more affordable price brackets where buyers can now combine very aggressive SSD cost with capacity and a good amount of performance as well.

AData has taken the present state of the SSD market in stride by putting a focus upon delivering that optimal blend of features and pricing which buyers are now accustomed to looking for. A little while ago we looked at the first phase of their multi-pronged approach: the XPG SX930. That drive featured excellent NAND, very good performance and backed it up with a unique controller solution. Unfortunately we found it a bit expensive in comparison to some of its competitors like Crucial’s excellent MX200.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

aLLreLi CP0037 8GB Digital Voice Recorder Review

Today for review I’ve got something I haven’t reviewed for a long time, it’s a voice recorder from our friends over at aLLreLi and it’s really nice, I was surprised by it honestly and it comes with lots of accessories. The capacity is 8gb which can record up to 72 hours straight and it has a built-in battery that you can recharge over USB. Read on to learn more..

Read full article @ Technogog

Amazon 7-inch Fire Tablet Review

Periodically, Amazon updates and revamps its lineup of tablets with upgraded models and new names. While the company's tablets have kept the Fire branding over the years, the combination of letters and numbers that follow have changed. This year, for example, Amazon removed the HDX tag and now offers tablets with simply “Fire” or “Fire HD” branding.

As its simpler name may suggest, Amazon’s latest Fire tablet is a more basic model that doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of the HD series, which is available in three sizes. Instead, the all-new 7-inch Fire tablet has an ultra-low $50 price tag that has the potential to shake up the market and get a tablet in the hands of people who might not otherwise consider purchasing such a device...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Extreme Review

Overclocking is just one of the many aspects of this board. ASUS builds its Republic of Gamers motherboards to be both high performance machines that deliver a targeted set of features to its core audience, the gamer. ASUS SupremeFX 2015 sound solution includes all the hardware to deliver a discrete level audio solution that is built into the PCB. It's a solution that continues to impress as it evolves. ASUS gives the end user a wealth of software tools that are integrated into one all-inclusive suite. Tools such as ROG Cache, RAMDisk, KeyBot, GameFirst III, Sonic Studio, and more are designed for the gamer to improve the overall experience. Tools such as AI Suite III with its TPU, EPU, 5-Way optimization tool, Fan Xpert III, USB 3.1 Boost, and ASUS Home Cloud and web storage all offer added benefits for the power user. The ASUS oftware suite is, in a word, great. It works and is easy to use. Add in the best in class CrashFree UEFI BIOS and it does not get much better.

Read full article @ OCC

Corsair Scimitar RGB Gaming Mouse Review

Founded in 1994, Corsair is foremost known for their outstanding quality in memory, power supplies, and lately competitive gaming PC peripherals. Their latest contribution for the passionate gaming community turns directly toward the massive multiplayer online games (MMO) segment, embracing both form and functionality to a new level: Introducing the Corsair Scimitar RGB, a high-level gaming mouse that goes above and beyond standard specifications and offers new features not seen on any other products of this nature to date.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Crucial BX200 240GB / 480GB review: new budget-SSD

Recently Crucial introduced their latest SSD in the popular budget BX-series. This BX200 uses the new TLC-memory and because of that should be even cheaper than its predecessor. We extensively tested the 240GB and 480GB variants of this SSD.

The BX200 is aimed at people that are still using hard drives. Crucial wants to tempt these people into using an SSD by making this change as cheap as possible. For every BX200-disk the sequential read speed is 540 MB/sec, while the write speed should be 490 MB/sec. The amount of IOps is 66,000 when reading and 78,000 when writing.

Just like the Adata SP550 240GB, that we tested previously, the BX200 is equipped with the new Silicon Motion SM2256 controller. This new controller supports TLC (triple level cell), which stores three bits per memory cell instead of two. The BX100 used MLC-memory, which stored two bits per memory cell, but the BX200 features 16nm TLC-memory manufactured by Micron. This means the BX200 has the potential to become even cheaper.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Fallout 4 Benchmarked

A great many Tom's Hardware readers are already immersed in the world of Fallout 4. We're here to show you how the game runs across a wide range of graphics cards, resolutions and detail settings.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Fractal Design Core 500

The Fractal Design Core 500 is the company's first mainstream SFF chassis. Clocking in at around 60 USD, it aims to offer the perfect balance between size, price, and quality. We take the unit for a spin to see whether it holds up in these areas.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Fractal Design Core 500 Review

There are two distinctly different ways to approach the Mini-ITX Fractal Design Core 500. The first is to pack out the drive bays with a ton of storage (optical drive, three hard drives and three SSD) to effectively convert your tiny PC into a server or NAS.

The second approach is to rip out some of the bays and build a full-blooded gaming PC. Core 500 supports a graphics card up to 310mm in length along with a liquid cooler using a radiator up to 280mm.

That simply isn’t the sort of hardware you expect to be able to cram inside a small form factor chassis and it suggests Fractal Design has created something rather clever.

Read full article @ KitGuru

G.SKILL Ripjaws Gaming Peripherals Review

Earlier this June at Computex 2015 in Taiwan, G.SKILL introduced a new lineup of computer peripherals slated for release throughout the third quarter of 2015. Established in 1989, G.SKILL has been producing extreme performance memory for the computer enthusiast market since 2003 and introduced its first SSD module in 2008. Now G.SKILL has expanded its lineup further with a new Ripjaws series of gaming peripherals that include two headsets, two keyboards (RGB and MX) and a mouse. Today we will see what G.SKILL's Real 7.1 headset, RGB mechanical keyboard and RGB mouse have to offer.

The G.SKILL Ripjaws SR910 Real 7.1 headset comes equipped with 10 discrete audio drivers (5 per ear piece) to provide a surround sound listening experience for music or gaming, all with the comfort of leatherette lined ear pads. The circumaural headset will adjust to your head, keeping the ear pieces firmly in place. The microphone is enclosed in the left side headphone and telescopes out with fully adjustable placement for team speak or recording, while the optional Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) can reduce background noise for clearer communications.

The G.SKILL Ripjaws KM780 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard has a metal framework to provide a substantial base to mount the Cherry MX switches. The on-board memory allows the set up of three operation modes directly accessible by the M1-M3 Mode keys on the upper left of the keyboard, with the six G keys along the left edge. To the upper right are the multimedia control keys that incorporate a scroll wheel for audio level adjustment (complete with a light bar indicator), and below that are the Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock LED ON status illumination.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Install GIMP 2.8.16 on Ubuntu 15.10

GIMP has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

Read full article @ Ubuntu Geek

Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

If you don't want to think too hard about which OS you're using, Mint is for you.

Read full article @ Arstechnica

MSI Z170A SLI Plus Motherboard Review

MSI’s Z170 motherboard product stack is pretty full, there are so many motherboards it is hard to narrow it down to a single board for your Z170 build. MSI has put a lot of focus on their Gaming Series that their Pro Series is often overlooked. Today we will be taking a look at a motherboard that has everything that you would want in a Z170 motherboard, without many of the extras that you won’t use. With that it comes in at a price that won’t break the bank. The motherboard I am talking about is the Z170A SLI Plus which features two shielded PCI-Express slots that support SLI and CrossFire, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, USB 3.1, and six SATA 6GB/s ports. As you can guess this board is designed for people who will be using two graphics cards and do not need all of the extra things on many of the motherboards we see on the market. Let’s see if the Z170A SLI Plus is the perfect board for your next Z170 build.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

SanDisk Z400s SSD Review

SanDisk has the exclusive on Silicon Motion's SM2246XP controller. What's more, we got our 128GB Z400s for just $.25/GB. But is this is a true low-cost contender, or just a cheap SSD?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

SilverStone Raven X RVX01 Review

The RAVEN series has been a great achievement for SilverStone. Over the years this case series has scooped up many accolades for innovation and cooling performance – every 12 months SilverStone has satisfied advocates of the brand with the next instalment but this time round, as the year draws to a close a new series is unleashed by way of the RAVEN X Series.

The first case to be released under the new RAVEN X Series is the RVX01. The idea being that this case will still deliver the signature touches which many have come to love but certain refinements are made to create an entry-level chassis and thus appeal to those on a tighter budget.

Read full article @ Vortez