Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ADATA XPG SX300 mSATA Solid State Drive Review
Adesso Xtream S2 Bluetooth Speaker Review
BeQuiet Dark Rock 3 Heatsink Review
Blackfire Clamplight Mini LED Flashlight Review
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Review
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review
Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case Review
MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 6 GB
My Trip to GNOME: a 3.10 Review
Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC Edition Graphics Card Review
Seasonic Platinum 1200W Modular Power Supply Review
SteelSeries Sensei Wireless
Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage Review
Thermaltake NiC C4 Review

ADATA XPG SX300 mSATA Solid State Drive Review

I’m sure most of you have heard of mSATA solid state drives. They are one of the smallest storage options available. It is most likely that your ultrabook or even your motherboard has a mSATA slot. This gives you the ability to easily add more storage capacity or use an mSATA drive as a caching option. Today we are taking a look at ADATA’s flagship mSATA drive the SX300. It is outfitted with the latest LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller. Let’s see if this is the perfect drive to add to your system.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Adesso Xtream S2 Bluetooth Speaker Review

Which is a better vehicle, a Honda Civic, or a Ford F-150? The way I see it, this is a pretty poor question, because it compares two completely different products for two completely different markets. If you are looking for a compact, economical, reliable, and fuel efficient sedan that is fun to drive, you would buy a Honda Civic. If you are looking for a truck for work that can easily move lots of things around, can rock in the mud as well as it can tow a trailer up the mountain, you would buy a Ford F-150. As you can see, this is a classic case of expectation versus categorical error. No one would reasonably choose a Honda Civic over a Ford F-150 to make rounds at Home Depot; nor would anyone do the opposite because they wanted something small and easy to park. You will have to choose the one that comes in the correct form factor to meet your needs correctly. If you have been following APH Networks for the last little while, you will realize we have covered quite a number of audio products recently. This ranges from the excellent Audioengine A2+ powered desktop speakers, Func's well received HS-260 gaming headphones, to Adesso's own Xtream H2 Bluetooth wireless headset. Of course, I am not going to sit here and pretend every product is amazing in its own way. Each product has its strengths and limitations, and some does its job better than others. On the other hand, being a passionate audio enthusiast at heart, it is also important to present a balanced case of expectation versus satisfaction. Today, we are going to take a look at Adesso's Xtream S2 Bluetooth wireless speaker. Measuring in at 17.7cm wide, 6.8cm tall, and 5.5cm deep, do we expect bass to rock the house and power that rivals my home entertainment receiver? Obviously not. But what can we expect from such a compact package that promises to deliver reasonably good sound without any wires, and even features a mic so you can take some calls on your phone? Read on to find out!

Read full article @ APH Networks

BeQuiet Dark Rock 3 Heatsink Review

On the test bench today we have BeQuiet's Dark Rock 3 heatsink; the "little brother" to the dual-tower Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU cooler Frostytech recently put through the thermal wringer. The Dark Rock 3 stands 159mm tall and weighs in at 976 grams. Built around six, 6mm diameter copper heatpipes and a large aluminum fin stack, the Dark Rock 3 is rated to heat loads up to 190W TDP by the manufacturer.

Read full article @ FrostyTech

Blackfire Clamplight Mini LED Flashlight Review

Blackfire makes several different flashlights that are much more than just a light and I’ve reviewed the regular Clamplight a little bit ago, but today I have another one from Blackfire called the Clamplight Mini and it’s just what it sounds like a tiny Clamplight. This little flashlight features an LED that never needs replaced and has a battery life of about 55 hours. The Clamplight Mini is not only a light but it’s clamp, the clamp is built in so you can clip or clamp the light to any surface or you could even use it as a clamp to hold things together. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ TestFreaks

Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Review

Gigabyte motherboards can generally be classified in three unique categories: Ultra Durable (UD), Super Overclocking (SOC) and Gaming (G1). HEXUS is well accustomed to the UD Series - the Z87X-UD3H has been a mainstay of our high-end graphics test platform and the Z97X-UD5H recently went under the review spotlight - but Gigabyte's focus for the new Z97 chipset appears to have shifted over to the G1 Series.

Gaming boards are big business at the high-end of Intel's desktop market and practically all manufacturers are now offering gamer-orientated designs at competitive prices. Gigabyte has historically arrived on the scene with vivid boards based around a green-on-black colour scheme and, on ultra-high-end models, lavish heatsinks shaped like ammunition.

The sometimes eye-catching, sometimes gaudy designs had a tendency to divide the crowd, so the Taiwanese outfit has decided to take a step back for Z97 and revert to the colour scheme that never fails: good ol' red and black.

Read full article @ Hexus

Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Intel’s first Haswell Refresh CPUs have just been recently released, Intel’s Devil’s Canyon (unlocked K series Haswell Refresh) CPUs are expected in just a month or two and rumours going around suggest that Intel’s Broadwell CPUs could even be released this year too – from an enthusiast perspective there has never been a better time to upgrade your motherboard to the latest chipset on the block – Z97. Today we are taking a closer look at our third Z97 motherboard courtesy of Gigabyte, more specifically it is their Z97X-Gaming 7 motherboard which is their top of the range Gaming Series motherboard, although they will have other more premium boards from their Ultra Durable and OC ranges but those aren’t targeted specifically at gamers. For anyone used to the Gigabyte G1 Gaming series of motherboards you may be surprised by two obvious aesthetic changes. The first is the colour scheme has shifted from green and black to red and black. The second is that that G1 Series Bullets and Skulls have been replaced by the “Gigabyte Eye” typically seen on their VGA series products. For some this may be a great move by Gigabyte, moving towards the more desired and traditional “gaming” red and black colours, but for others it might be a bit frustrating to see ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all offering red and black as the primary colour scheme on their gaming motherboards. What might be even more worrying is that MSI and Gigabyte both have Z97 gaming motherboard models dubbed “Gaming 7″, which will no doubt serve to confuse consumers.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case Review

Lian-Li’s historical reputation is filled with some of the most innovative designs and ideas such as their “reverse-ATX” models. To add to their history, their products are undeniably well built and host one of the highest levels of quality that is available today in the market, which we have really come to enjoy here at Benchmark Reviews. Even in their budget oriented cases, Lian-Li has managed to impress us in the past with their choice of designs and user friendly layouts. The Lian Li PC-Q07B ITX case is no exception, featuring a very appealing and extremely small minimalistic cube design, we found that this case is perfect for the current trend of mini-ITX systems that keeps growing due to the improved integration of motherboard chipsets.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 6 GB

MSI's Radeon R9 280X Gaming 6 GB comes with twice the video memory of the reference design. We will test multiple resolutions including EyeFinity and 4K to see whether it really makes a difference. Another highlight of the card is that it's really quiet, quieter than any other R9 280X we've tested before.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

My Trip to GNOME: a 3.10 Review

Remember back when GNOME and KDE dominated Linux desktops? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Yet it was only three years ago, in April 2011, that GNOME 3 was released. Its
radically redesigned interface shook up everyone. Some eagerly adopted it. Others left GNOME.

In this brief review I take a fresh look at GNOME today, as it's currently distributed in several popular Linux distributions.

Read full article @ OSNews

Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC Edition Graphics Card Review

Today we take the Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC and put it head to head with the GeForce GTX 780 at 1080p and 4K in titles including Wolfenstein The New Order, Battlefield 4, F1 2013 and Crysis 3.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

Seasonic Platinum 1200W Modular Power Supply Review

There are no shortage of high grade power supplies in 2014. Already we have reviewed the Super Flower Leadex Platinum 1,000w, The Antec High Current Pro Platinum 1,300w, Cooler Master V1200 Platinum and the Corsair AX1500i Titanium. All of these units claimed our top awards. Today we look at the brand new Seasonic Platinum 1200W modular unit, released in the UK this week.

Read full article @ KitGuru

SteelSeries Sensei Wireless

Recently with both my headsets and mice I have been all about the wireless devices. Living wireless is great, the reason a lot of companies hadn’t pushed it in the past was because the technology was costly and had too much lag for gaming. Things have changed and almost everyone has introduced their wireless gaming models, everyone except SteelSeries. Well today, I finally have the chance to take a look at the Sensei Wireless. Their Sensei models have been popular and have even been my go to wireless mouse, I can’t wait to see if the Sensei Wireless lives up to the high expectations that the wired models set.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage Review

The Thecus N2560 is a Network Attached storage devices that is based of the Intel EvanSport NAS platform. The NAS supports drives up to 4 TB in size.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Thermaltake NiC C4 Review

Today we look at the Thermaltake NiC C4, a CPU cooler that falls into the category of an affordable, yet effective means, which to harness the thermal load generated by your processor. Priced at $54.99 MSRP, the NiC C4 is not a bargain basement dweller if you are shopping purely on price. The NiC C4 has a new slim tower design that is capable of dissipating up to 220 watts within a compact space. The NiC in Thermaltakes NiC series stands for None-Inference Cooler. A design Thermaltake developed for all those times when you thought you found the perfect cooler, but it would not clear the latest and greatest memory modules you picked for the build. Thus leading to a compromise on that no compromise build. This is no longer the case as Themraltake aims to please in a compact form.

In a market flooded with CPU Coolers ranging from price oriented, to extreme performance, it takes a lot to be a top contender. The cooler has to have all the right stuff from the fans, the fin array package, all the way down to the way the heat pipes wick the thermals away from the CPU die, so without delay let’s jump right in and see if Thermaltake equipped the NiC C4 with the right parts to allow it to successfully cool the latest CPU technology.

Read full article @ OCC