Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AOC launches 34-inch Ultra Wide Quad HD Monitor
ASRock Z97 M8 Barebones PC
Cooler Master Mizar Gaming Mouse Review
Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO CPU Cooler Review
Corsair Gaming M65 RGB Game Mouse Review
Far Cry 4 Benchmarked, Performance Review
Finally light bulbs Tesla tech gives LEDs a worthy rival
Gaming and Computing at 4K Resolution
Hands-on review: Nvidia Grid game-streaming service
How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 or 8.1 (The Easy Way)
IN WIN D-FRAME MINI Computer Case Review
Jabra Evolve 80 Review
Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review
Kubuntu 14.10 Review
Lenovo N20p Touch Screen Chromebook Review
LEPOWER 40w 5-Port USB Charger Review
MSI B85M ECO Motherboard
MSI X99S MPower
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 SLI 4K and NV Surround Review
OCZ ARC 100 240GB Review
Scientific Linux 7 - Poorly executed
Sennheiser G4ME ONE Headset Review
Spigen Slim Armor case for the HTC One for Windows Review
Stanley FatMax LEDLISL 10W LED Lithium-Ion Spotlight Review
Synchronize Your Life with ownCloud
The 2014 Ars Technica gift guide
The OnePlus One Review

AOC launches 34-inch Ultra Wide Quad HD Monitor

Following on from the quartet of new gaming monitors it showed off yesterday. AOC has announced a new 34-inch monitor with an Ultra-Wide display. The U3477PQU features a 21:9 ratio display offering 3440 x 1440 pixels, which AOC refers to as Ultra Wide Quad HD, or uwQHD for short. The firm also launched a quartet of gaming monitors yesterday including a 24-inch Nvidia G-SYNC enabled model and others aimed at gamers due to featuring fast refresh rates and snappy response times.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASRock Z97 M8 Barebones PC

The award-winning ASRock M8 barebones chassis has received an upgrade recently, sporting Intel's latest Z97 chipset as well as a larger 600W PSU. Ready to accept nearly any add-in VGA and nearly any LGA1150 CPU, the ASRock Z97 M8 barebones is that system many lust over, and we get our own chance to see why.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Cooler Master Mizar Gaming Mouse Review

In the end the CM Mizar is still ruling the roost of my desktop. My past favorite has taken a backseat for a bit to allow the new top dog to settle in. Although with my small hands I tend to prefer mice a little smaller than this one, I'm very happy with the fit and most happy with the feel of the mouse itself. The flat paint has a nice dry texture that remains dry even with long hours of use. The LED in the palm stays relatively cool with the pulsing mode keeping things from getting warm back there. I have found even with LEDs, in some mice, having a glowing logo can be pretty warm. The rubber grips on the side of the mouse are great for grip. They can get a little tacky with sweat but they don’t become slippery; you still have full control of the mouse at the end of the long final boss fight. The mouse isn't adjustable weight wise, beyond your own modifications, but it seems to be the right balance of light and heavy despite my first judgment out of the box. This truly is a great mouse for gaming, as it claims, and makes out quite nice because of that in all other activities.

Read full article @ OCC

Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO CPU Cooler Review

Just a short few weeks ago, we took a look at a slightly older Cooler Master all-in-one liquid CPU cooler the Nepton 280L. That cooler has been on the market for nearly a year, which gave Cooler Master enough time to come up with a more refined version. We're going to take a look at the smaller sibling called the Nepton 240M. Don't be fooled by the name and the fact that it is smaller, as Cooler Master promises a quieter and similar performing package than what the 280L offered.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Corsair Gaming M65 RGB Game Mouse Review

In today’s review we'll focus on the M65 RGB mouse from Corsair. We tested a lot of mouses, but this puppy is impressive by any standard. The minute you have it on your hands it feels right. Next to that the mouse is armed with a 8200 DPI laser sensor, customizable weight system, configurable RGB LEDs and a handful of programmable buttons with the help of Corsairs software suite. Yep, with the launch of the professional Corsair Gaming line, the M65 RB mouse has been revamped a little as well. Armed with great looks a comfortable feel and pretty nifty features, this product is bound to impress.

We stated it a couple of times already, but it is very crowded in the PC gaming hardware arena -- especially when it comes to keyboards and mice. Whether you have 5 bucks to spend or 150 EUR, there WILL be a product matching that budget. Simple mice, small mice, mice dedicated to games, mice with multiple scanning lasers, mice with adjustable weight systems, and on and on.

The 8200 dpi mouse has three-some RGB color customization that allows for 16.8 million color selection backlighting per one of the three LED location. The M65 advances on that though as its cast is made out of durable aluminum unibody shell covered by a rubber grip. Though a litttle unclear, the M65 sensor should not have positive acceleration and angle snapping/prediction, which true gamers dislike, as this mouse is using the Avago ADNS-A9800 (200 cpi step), known to be very good sensors. If the sensor is implimented well, this new mouse should be among the most accurate to date.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Far Cry 4 Benchmarked, Performance Review

Graphics have always been a selling point of the Far Cry series as few games offer the same open world environments that can be experienced in Far Cry. The latest iteration is no exception. Being an Nvidia "The Way It's Meant to be Played" title, FC4 has loads of optimizations for GeForce cards, including HBAO+, PCSS, TXAA, Godrays, and HairWorks. If nothing else, this should make it all the more interesting to compare results.

Read full article @ Techspot

Finally light bulbs Tesla tech gives LEDs a worthy rival

Ever since I improbably started blogging occasionally about light bulbs, I've been waiting impatiently to get a look at the first product from The Finally Light Bulb Company. This start-up company from Cambridge, Massachusetts has decided to bring a Tesla-era lighting technology into the consumer space.

For some reason, they sent me one. Here's what I think of it.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gaming and Computing at 4K Resolution

Putting the teething issues aside, I loaded up Crysis 3 to put my GTX 780Ti through its paces. Setting the resolution to 4K (3840 x 2160) and all other options except Anti-Aliasing to “Very High”, I was greeted with the most breathtaking gaming visuals I have ever seen. Textures were crisp to the point of being photo-realistic and the game just looked amazing. At 25 Frames Per Second. Hmmm.

It became quickly obvious that one of the fastest single-chip graphics cards in the world was simply not good enough to run games with this standard of visual fidelity, as it has to push 4 times as many pixels as 1080p.

Read full article @ PC Review

Hands-on review: Nvidia Grid game-streaming service

Nvidia is in a privileged position. Whether the team there believes it or not, every innovation that comes out of its research and development department will show up sooner or later in hundreds of mainstream titles and technologies. Don’t believe me? Look at the GPU. Twenty years ago the concept of a discrete graphics processing unit wasn’t something that consumers had much interest in. But, come 1999, that story changed when Nvidia launched its 256 card. In the time since its launch, Nvidia has produced dozens of cards, each improving on that early model. The point here is that the original wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t matter. It was innovative and, in the end, that’s what made it ubiquitous with gamers.When trying out Grid, Nvidia’s game-streaming service that’s 10-years in the making, this is exactly how I feel: It may not be perfect but, along with its console counterpart PlayStation Now, it’s the beginning of something big in a way that services like OnLive never were.

Read full article @ Techradar

How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 or 8.1 (The Easy Way)

One of the most common steps when troubleshooting a PC is to boot into safe mode. For a long time this has been achieved by pressing the F8 key, this all changes with Windows 8 and its Automatic Repair mode.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

IN WIN D-FRAME MINI Computer Case Review

If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary for your mITX build, the Taiwanese company IN WIN has some products you’ll want to check out. They offer a variety of uniquely-designed computer cases ranging from the weird to the…well, OK, actually, they’re all pretty weird, from the all-glass Tóu to today’s subject, the IN WIN D-FRAME MINI. Benchmark Reviews builds a high-end gaming system in this expensive open-air mITX case to see what it’s got.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Jabra Evolve 80 Review

For anyone who works in an office, finding the perfect headset can be difficult. Sound quality, microphone clarity and general comfort are three of the most important pillars to consider when purchasing a headset, especially if you're likely to be on calls for hours at a time. Unfortunately, not many units offer all three features simultaneously.Whether you're working at home or in a cube farm, distraction is a real obstacle. What I do involves a lot of email and voice communication, so isolation from distractions with a headset seems like a good use of cash.We tested the Jabra Evolve 80 ($329, £210, AU$380) headset for a few weeks to see if it does in fact boost productivity in noisy work environments. The company claims to deliver an unmatched solution for businesses of all sizes, enabling greater concentration and focus in the open office. With modern office design trending toward fully open floor plans and communal Sonos playlists, sometimes getting some peace and quiet seems impossible.

Read full article @ Techradar

Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review

Recently Kingston introduced their brand new HyperX Savage Series DDR3 memory kits. The HyperX Savage series effectively replaces the HyperX Genesis series that has been on the market for a few years now. The refresh sees a new improved and stylish red heatspreader, black PCB and of course the great quality we expect from Kingston. Kingston’s HyperX Savage memory is available with speeds ranging from 1600 MHz to 2400 MHz in single 4GB and 8GB modules and dual-channel kits ranging from 8GB all the way up to 32GB. Today we will be taking a look at the highest clocked kit the HX324C11SRK2/16 which runs at 2400 MHz with timings of 11-13-14 at 1.65V. Let’s get them on the test bench and see how they do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Kubuntu 14.10 Review

The last time I reviewed a Kubuntu release was back in November 2011 and that was Kubuntu 11.10 (see Kubuntu 11.10 review). For a Linux distribution that I track, thats a long time without a review. But I remember losing interest in this distribution because I didnt think the developers were bringing anything new to the table. Not that I []

Read full article @ LinuxBSDos.com

Lenovo N20p Touch Screen Chromebook Review

Chromebooks seem to have found their place in the market, especially in the education segment, and shipments have increased significantly. The latest statistics show Chromebook shipments jumped 67 percent in the most recent quarter and are on track to double compared to last year. Now that Intel and Google have joined forces to further the Chromebook platform, companies such as Lenovo (and others) are expanding their Chromebook offerings.

Lenovo’s N20 and N20p Chromebooks are the company's first Chromebooks targeting consumers (previous Lenovo Chromebook models are geared toward the education sector). The N20 gives users all of the features and the thin and light form factor one would expect from a Chromebook while the N20p takes things a step further by adding a multimode design that gives users the ability to use it in Laptop and Stand modes, which can be handy to show off the N20p Chromebook’s touchscreen display...

http://hothardware.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efc4c507c2cf964fc2462caca&id=07a8ccdda1&e=0c004f9c13]Read full article @ HotHardware.com[/url]

LEPOWER 40w 5-Port USB Charger Review

As the number of devices we own explodes, so too does our reliance on the humble USB port. More and more products are choosing to use USB connections for charging, a situation that has given birth to the rather one-dimensional multi-port USB charger. The LEPOWER 40w 5-port USB Charger ($19.99) is one solution that allows you to charge up to five devices at once, or two tablets and three smartphones.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

MSI B85M ECO Motherboard

Many of us that use PC technology as more than just a hobby can attest to the many aspects of cost. This can be a very, very, very expensive hobby. Outside of the insane amounts of money we have to spend on parts to create a personal masterpiece or the vast library of PC games that mostly collect virtual dust , we have to look at the indirect cost of PC ownership, specifically energy costs. Electric companies love us, with only Bitcoin miners being more loved more than gamers and overclockers. All jokes aside, those of us in a position to build PCs for businesses and everyday people should consider using a board like what we will see today when the opportunity warrants it. The MSI B85M ECO is aimed at trimming power usage down to a minimum level without costing performance as a trade off; an interesting idea. Let’s take a close look at what the MSI B85M ECO is bringing to the table.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

MSI X99S MPower

When shopping for a new motherboard I’ve found that a lot of people tend to lean toward what you have had good experiences with in the past. For me I have a short list of companies that I tend to prefer in my personal rigs and MSI is on that list. When I covered the X99 launch I didn’t have the chance to check out their X99 offerings but today I finally do. They sent over the X99S MPower. It isn’t their highest end board but it is damn close. Now I can sit down and see how it compares to the competition. My previous experiences with MSI MPower boards have been good, but the X99 boards I have tested to date have been extremely good, will it be able to keep up? Let’s find out.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 SLI 4K and NV Surround Review

We have just posted our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 SLI 4K and NV Surround review this afternoon. If you haven't had the opportunity to read it yet, make sure you take the time to do so, you won't be disappointed.

We take 2-Way NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 SLI for a spin and compare it to R9 290X CF, R9 290 CF, GTX 780 SLI at 4K resolution as well as NV Surround on a triple-display setup. If you want to see how all these video cards compare in these different display configurations we've got just the thing. Find out what $700 SLI gets you.

Read full article @ HardOCP

OCZ ARC 100 240GB Review

As expected, with OCZ now owned by Toshiba, OCZ would be using the in-house brew Toshiba NAND for their SSDs as oppose to Intel/Micron. OCZ has transitioned their mainstream Vertex SSDs to the Toshiba NAND already. And the latest budget line of SSD, the ARC 100, continues the trend of using all in-house made components of pairing the Indilinx controller with the Toshiba NAND.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Scientific Linux 7 - Poorly executed

Let me sour up your day. Here's an extremely negative review of Scientific Linux 7 64-bit edition with the Gnome desktop, covering live session, installation in a quad-boot setup and a mostly unsuccessful attempt at daily use, including Wireless, Samba sharing, look & feel, customization, partitioning, applications, multimedia playback - MP3 & Flash, firewall, stability, system resources, tons of problems like horrible Gnome 3 components, lack of usability, missing functionality, crippled software management, lack of ability to change and tweak the system and install programs, and more. Enjoy, not.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

Sennheiser G4ME ONE Headset Review

Following should sound familiar - you are driving through the virtual enemy ground with your M1A2 Abrams Battletank, firing your 120mm cannon, when suddenly the door opens and your girlfriend or mother says friendly, that you please turn down the volume of your 1000 watt 5.1 surround station.
For those poor Gamer souls we have the Sennheiser G4ME ONE Headset in our test lab today.

Read full article @ OcInside.de

Spigen Slim Armor case for the HTC One for Windows Review

The HTC One for Windows is on the loose across Verizon, AT&T and soon to T-Mobile. If there is one thing that we can almost guarantee besides the fact that you'll love it, it is the near-certainty that you will drop it. That's because the sleek metal unibody of the HTC One is also a slick metal unibody. Therefore, when considering a case, you may want to think about one that not only stands up to its share of drops, but also matches the elegant design of the device it's protecting. Enter Spigen's Slim Armor case for the HTC One.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Stanley FatMax LEDLISL 10W LED Lithium-Ion Spotlight Review

Brand names. All companies have them. The name that is associated with a company is something all try their best to instill in the minds of consumers. Some brand names have a storied and lasting history behind them. When I think of the brand name of Stanley, I personally think about high quality tools that anyone can use for the home improvement trade, heck even the professionals use Stanley. Stanley is now technically part of the Black & Decker family and called Stanley Black & Decker.

Stanley makes everything from chisels for carpentry, measuring tapes, stud sensors, hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, knives, and even flashlights. The FatMax line of tools has been a lineup of tools that has given steady growth for Stanley. Stanley FatMax products are those that are essential for the professional, or enthusiast who desire durable, high quality tools. They are a step above the norm and now have the FatMax Xtreme lineup of tools with a slogan of Treat It Like You Hate It, brilliant motto.

Read full article @ ModSynergy.com

Synchronize Your Life with ownCloud

Like most families these days, our family is extremely busy. We have four boys who have activities and appointments. My wife and I both have our own businesses as well as outside activities. For years, we've been using eGroupware to help coordinate our schedules and manage contacts. The eGroupware system has served us well for a long time.

Read full article @ Linux Journal

The 2014 Ars Technica gift guide

Smartphones, tablets, video games, and so much more round out our holiday picks.

Read full article @ Ars Technica

The OnePlus One Review

The OnePlus One has been one of the most hyped smartphones of 2014. Theres really not much else to be said, as OnePlus marketing has been quite noticeable amongst Android enthusiasts. The OnePlus One seems to come from nowhere, although there is a noticeable resemblance to the Oppo Find 7A which is produced in the same factory. The OnePlus One is said to be a flagship killer, as its high-end specs come with a mid-range price. The 16GB version starts at 299 USD and the 64GB version starts at 349 USD. With a 5.5" 1080p display, Snapdragon 801 SoC, and plenty of other bits and pieces to go around, the specs are certainly enough to make it into a flagship phone. Of course, the real question is whether it really is. After all, while specs provide the foundation, what makes a phone bad, good, or great has to do with the entire phone, not just the spec sheet. To find out how it does in our testing, read on for the full review.

Read full article @ Anandtech