Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including How to setup local account in Windows 8.1, CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced, Ubuntu 13.10 Can Outperform OS X 10.9 On Intel OpenGL, Intel To Kill Atom Brand, and ROSA Desktop R1 GNOME preview



How to setup local account in Windows 8.1 @ Dedoimdeo

For all the Windows people out there: I've written a tutorial explaining how to setup a local administrator account in Windows 8.1 after the initial mandatory online account setup during installation. There you go.

Read more: How to setup local account in Windows 8.1 @ Dedoimdeo

CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced @ techPowerUp

The CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced comes with no visible changes when compared to the basic variant, but has a total of three pre-installed fans instead of one. Will this be enough for the Advanced version to stand out?

Read more: CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced @ techPowerUp

Galaxy GeForce GTX 780 GC Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

Galaxy Microsystems announced the GeForce GTX 780 GC this week and we have a review of it up for you today! This is the first custom NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 design from Galaxy and it features better components, a custom GPU cooler and the Kepler GPU has been factory overclocked. Read on to find out how this "Galaxy Clocked" card performs and to see if we can push the overclock even higher!

Read more: Galaxy GeForce GTX 780 GC Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews

SteelSeries FLUX In-Ear Pro Gaming Headset @ NikKTech

As far back as i can remember whenever i would find the time to attend a large LAN event i would see dozens of people wearing full sized closed type gaming headsets since these solutions obviously offered the best possible noise isolation along with good positioning audio (at least for most models). Personally i also use a closed type gaming headset with my primary test system to avoid intruding in other people's privacy at night when playing online MMOs line Planetside 2 so this never really came as a surprise to me. However things seem to be changing and so lately many gaming peripherals manufacturers have begun to release in-ear headsets (i prefer the term earsets) featuring drivers with exceptional audio specifications making them ideal for gaming use. SteelSeries hardly needs any introductions and as it was expected they were the first manufacturer to join this new trend so follow us as we take their latest FLUX In-Ear Pro Headset and put it through rigorous testing with all the latest gaming titles, movies and of course our favorite new and old tunes.

Read more: SteelSeries FLUX In-Ear Pro Gaming Headset @ NikKTech

Ubuntu 13.10 Can Outperform OS X 10.9 On Intel OpenGL @ Phoronix

With Apple's OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" having better OpenGL performance and in compliance with OpenGL 4.1 rather than being GL3-limited as with existing OS X releases, new benchmarks were carried out at Phoronix to see how well Apple's OpenGL driver stack on the current OS X 10.9 developer preview compared to Ubuntu Linux when testing the Intel graphics driver.

Read more: Ubuntu 13.10 Can Outperform OS X 10.9 On Intel OpenGL @ Phoronix

ASRock Z87E-ITX Intel Desktop Motherboard Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Small form factor PC's have been gaining a lot of momentum and favor with hardware enthusiasts and hardcore gamers these past couple of years. Since more features are integrated into the CPU in recent releases, it means more real estate has been made on ITX form factor motherboards for extras that may well have not fit previously. With the release of Intel Haswell CPU's and Z87 chipset, motherboard vendors are now more than ever able to condense the features of a full size ATX motherboard into the ITX form factor without much (if any) sacrifice. See for yourself, take a look at an average Z68 or Z77 ATX motherboard and you will start to notice just how much space isn't occupied. In this article Benchmark Reviews takes an in-depth look at the ASRock Z87E-ITX motherboard, reporting back on special features and performance as well as giving a visual commentary on the aesthetics of this tiny beast.

Read more: ASRock Z87E-ITX Intel Desktop Motherboard Review @ Benchmark Reviews

Creative Labs SoundBlaster ZXR Review @ Guru3D

Creative Labs has been a powerhouse force in the world of PC audio ever since there was such a concept as PC audio. They developed loads of great audio tech for gamers and were considered the pinnacle of PC gaming audio devices for quite some time.

Creative Labs basically had the market cornered for many years and some diehard fans felt that during this time their designs suffered a bit. They weren’t really pushing the envelope and trying to advance the market as much as a company would if they had steady competition. As the saying goes it is great to be king! In recent times, the PC audio market has enjoyed a resurgence of fans and new technology. New companies have thrown their hats into the ring and defiantly declared to Creative to either step up or step off. Enter the current Z class of soundcards. From what we have been able to gleen, the new Z series is CL's push to gain the top spot again or at least gather the lions share. Needless to say in the Guru3D Audio Lab, we were quite interested to get a look and listen at their latest flagship product, the SoundBlaster ZXR.

Today in the Guru3D Audio Lab, we have the ZXR flagship offering from Creative Labs and we are all ready to examine and have a listen to check out what this new product has to offer the PC audio community. We have much to do, so let's get to it.

Read more: Creative Labs SoundBlaster ZXR Review @ Guru3D

Intel To Kill Atom Brand @ techPowerUp

Intel is planning to drop the "Atom" brand name, as it's sounding synonymous with "entry-level" or "cheap." The brand could be actually affecting popularity of Intel's "Clover Trail+" mobile SoCs, which are intended by Intel to compete with high-performance SoCs, under the Qualcomm Snapdragon and NVIDIA Tegra brands. Given how Atom makes up the slowest CPUs Intel has to offer, on the desktop and notebook platforms, its popularity in other emerging platforms could take a hit. Intel could brand Atom successors in its roadmaps to some of its more reputable brands, such as Celeron or Pentium. In the coming few years, Intel will have transitioned entry-level CPUs from its Celeron, Pentium, and even Core i3 brands to BGA (ball-grid array) packages, which could reduce their board footprint to nearly as much as today's Atom CPUs.

Read more: Intel To Kill Atom Brand @ techPowerUp

NZXT Phantom 530 Case Review @ Anandtech

With the 530 model, NZXT continues to fill out their product line with a Phantom for every season and price tag. But is the 530 the Phantom they and we needed?

Read more: NZXT Phantom 530 Case Review @ Anandtech

Gigabyte Z87X OC Overclocking Motherboard Review @ Ninjalane

Two years ago Gigabyte unleashed a motherboard design specific for the overclocking enthusiast market called the OC. This board was designed in conjunction with their in house overclocker along with feedback from the community to create an industry first. As you can imagine building a motherboard for such a specialized niche can be difficult considering that just about any motherboard can be used for overclocking and the competition knows this.

In this review we will be looking at the Gigabyte Z87X OC motherboard and contrasting many of its features with the Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force. Both the OC and OC Force are part of the OC line from Gigabyte designed for the computer enthusiast and overclocker. Each board targets a different market segment with the OC Force supporting 4-way SLI and multiple graphic setups while the OC takes advantage of CPU based overclocking and popular single video card benching.

Read more: Gigabyte Z87X OC Overclocking Motherboard Review @ Ninjalane

Powercolor Devil HD 7870 Review @ OCC

That being said the Devil is the first card in this round of comparisons to hit a 1300+MHz core clock stably. For an almost 19% boost in clock speed, the effort is worth the time commitment to grab that extra free performance. To help you out in that endeavor, PowerColor has its own overclocking utility called Powerup Tuner that is fully functional and features a Devil series skin to add some continuity to the branding. For the most part this utility does everything you will need it to with one exception for me; the maximum voltage that could be applied was in the 1.285v range while other utilities would allow 1.30v. Not a major faux pas as I have seen much worse. It does give the user that is afraid of kicking up the voltage to high some sense of security.

Read more: Powercolor Devil HD 7870 Review @ OCC

Gigabyte GTX 770 WindForce OC 2GB Video Card Review @ Madshrimps

The GTX WindForce OC 2GB video card from Gigabyte is another excellent product featuring overclocking from the factory along with the 2-slot 450W cooling system.

Read more: Gigabyte GTX 770 WindForce OC 2GB Video Card Review @ Madshrimps

ROSA Desktop R1 GNOME preview @ LinuxBSDos.com

ROSA Desktop R1 GNOME is the edition of the R line of desktop distributions from ROSA Laboratory that uses the GNOME 3 desktop environment. The beta edition that was supposed to be a Release Candidate was made available for download earlier today.

Read more: ROSA Desktop R1 GNOME preview @ LinuxBSDos.com