Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ADATA XPG SX930 240GB SSD Review
Cooler Master Mastercase 5 Review
Cooler Master Mouse Roundup Review
Cryorig A80 Hybrid Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Digital Storm Bolt 3 SFF Gaming PC: A Compact Powerhouse
Hitman 2016: PC graphics performance benchmark Review
Home server - March 2016
How to Upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 3
How-To: Create a Windows System Image for Windows 10 Devices
Intel Unveils Skull Canyon Gaming NUC PC With Core i7, Iris Pro Graphics, Thunderbolt 3
Meet Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK – Skull Canyon Arrives With Thunderbolt 3
Microsoft Lumia 550 review: a budget Lumia that doesn't deliver
Native Union JUMP Cable Review
NVIDIA Introduces New, High-Quality Shadow And Lighting Techniques And PhysX Updates In Latest GameWorks SDK
NZXT Manta Mini-ITX Case Review
QNAP TS-253A Network Attached Storage Review
Razer Naga Chroma Review
Synology DS216play 2-bay NAS

ADATA XPG SX930 240GB SSD Review

Today we are looking at the ADATA XPG SX930, a drive focused on gamers utilizing ‘enterprise grade’ MLC NAND. Past XPG-series products have performed very well but will this drive continue that legacy? Let’s find out…

Read full article @ KitGuru

Cooler Master Mastercase 5 Review

That is the Cooler Master motto when they launched the new Mastercase series and have been aggressively targeting the “maker” crowds who have been known to create a thing or two. These makers can be anyone from casemodders and hardware enthusiasts to painters and musicians all of which can benefit from a custom PC and aren’t afraid to build it themselves.

In this review I’ll be looking at the Mastercase 5 from Cooler Master. This case was first introduced during Computex 2015 and has since become a popular modding platform for its versatility and FreeForm Modular System.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Cooler Master Mouse Roundup Review

COOLER MASTER has a long tradition of producing high-end and affordable gaming equipment, and they were kind enough to send over the Xornet II, Sentinel III, Mizar and Havoc for a COOLER MASTER Mouse Roundup. Three reviewers tackling four mice to give you the low-down on some of the toughest gaming gear out there. Having been a fan of the original Sentinel, which still floats around the lab and has been in continuous use since it came out, we are especially excited to see the Sentinel III in the lineup. We’ve come a long way from the original one button mouse a couple of decades back, with these high-end devices of gaming destruction, you will seldom see a collection like this in one place. So sit back and enjoy the low down on four of COOLER MASTER’s best mice.

The Xornet II is a mouse that caters to those users that prefer a “claw style” grip on their mouse. This style of use typically brings the pointer and middle fingers back towards the body of the hand and results in using the tips of the fingers to depress the mouse buttons, instead of the pads of these fingers. Cooler Master has taken this type of grip into consideration, and has released an updated version of their Xornet line of mice. One thing that you will notice with a first glance at the Xornet II is that it is quite a bit shorter in length than your standard mouse. This makes sense, since the claw grip style reduces the overall grip size.

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Cryorig A80 Hybrid Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Even though they have only been around since 2013, thanks to their solid product lineup in the PC cooling arena, Cryorig has quickly become a popular company with hardcore PC enthusiasts. The Cryorig A80, which we are reviewing today, features a 280 mm radiator and is the highest performance unit in the Cryorig lineup. Read on to see how it performs when we put it to the test!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Digital Storm Bolt 3 SFF Gaming PC: A Compact Powerhouse

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Face the facts: If you want a pre-built PC that can play virtually any game at high resolutions with high-quality settings, you're going to have to pay a princely sum. While you could probably build your own PC for less than a pre-built system, boutique builders typically offer a number of benefits in the form of guaranteed overclocks or custom component. Or maybe you just have no interest whatsoever spending all that time installing parts and hiding cables in your case.

Though Digital Storm's Bolt 3 isn't the highest-end gaming PC we've tested, it holds its own for its not-so-insignificant price—delivering gaming performance that fits its cost, all built within a beautiful, small form factor chassis that would look just as good in your living room as it would under your desk...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Hitman 2016: PC graphics performance benchmark Review

We take a look at the latest iteration of Hitman in our usual geeky fashion. We'll test the game on the PC platform relative towards graphics card performance with the latest AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers. Multiple graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked.

With the newest graphics cards and technologies we'll try and see how well performance is in both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. As you'll find out, especailly anything DX12 related is troublesome in this game. We test with the game based on the release a couple of days ago, all patched up combined with AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.3 drivers and for Nvidia their GeForce 364.51 WHQL driver. This article will cover benchmarks in the sense of average framerates, we'll look at all popular resolutions scaling from Full HD (1920x1080/1200), WHQD (2560x1440) and of course that big-whopper of a resolution Ultra HD. UHDTV (2160p) is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.29 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as 1920x1080 (2.07 megapixels).

We'll also briefly look at multi-GPU scaling as well as frametime performance and latency issues as measured with FCAT.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Home server - March 2016

The home server. It's subject to heated debate on Hardware.Info. Opinions differ widely on subjects like the necessity for keeping the design compact, the advantage of hot-swap bays, acceptable energy consumption, how much CPU power is needed, what type of storage and so on. It's safe to say that the "ideal home server" does not exist, because its intended use differs widely among our readers.

This doesn't mean that we can't provide a good guide to effective home servers. There are two options, either you buy one off-the-shelf or you build one yourself. While there are a number of pre-assembled home servers available that have advantages in terms of compact design and price-performance ratio, the seasoned Hardware.Info reader of course prefers building one themselves. Our guide will focus finding the right balance between energy consumption, affordability and expandability.

Power usage is essential. A NAS with two disks and an Atom-based PC will consume less power, but both of these solutions lack the all-important aspect of expandability, so we are more flexible in how much power can be used. Our recommended configuration uses between 35W and 45W. You can achieve lower energy consumption, but at a significant trade-off in terms of processor power and upgrading options. A compromise in other words, like with all our recommended systems.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

How to Upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 3

Youve just received a brand new Raspberry Pi 3 – the latest, most powerful version of the popular mini-computer that has taken the maker world by storm. If this is your first Pi, then youll need to get a copy of the Raspbian OS installed. But if this is just the latest in a long line of Pis, you might prefer to upgrade your existing install, which is almost as simple as transferring the microSD card from your older Pi into the new model and booting. Almost as simple, but not quite.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

How-To: Create a Windows System Image for Windows 10 Devices

Earlier today I talked about backups and using Windows 10's built in File History backup service to help insure you do not lose important documents, photos, videos and other files on your devices.

That process will protect the data on your system but what if you experience a major hardware failure with your hard drive that contains your operating system and installed programs?

That is when a properly maintained system image comes in very handy. By creating this system image on a routine and regular basis you could have your system restored and back up and running in a very short period of time compared to a clean install of the OS and other software.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Intel Unveils Skull Canyon Gaming NUC PC With Core i7, Iris Pro Graphics, Thunderbolt 3

Intel first hinted at their upcoming Skull Canyon NUC small form factor PC at CES in Las Vegas, but the company is now ready to give this slightly bigger, badder NUC its official debut. Skull Canyon manages to cram high-end Intel silicon within an enclosure that measures just 8.5” x 4.6” x 0.9” and has a volume of just 0.69 liters. Inside, there is a sixth generation Intel Core i7-6770HQ processor with 45W TDP and integrated Iris Pro Graphics 580 with on-board eDRAM.

On the memory front, up to 32GB of 2133MHz DDR4 is supported while storage duties are covered by two M.2 slots that support the latest NVMe PCIe SSDs. Also on-board is Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and GbE and even a consumer infrared sensor if you want to use Skull Canyon as a media box.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Meet Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK – Skull Canyon Arrives With Thunderbolt 3

At Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2016, Intel officially announced the new Skull Canyon NUC that will be sold as the Intel NUC (NUC6i7KYK). Intel says that this NUC “unleashes maximized performance for intense game play or intensive workloads." Skull Canyon features a 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6770HQ ‘Skylake’ quad-core processor with Iris Pro Graphics 580.Read on to find out more about it and see our hands on photos!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Microsoft Lumia 550 review: a budget Lumia that doesn't deliver

Microsoft announced the Lumia 550 alongside the Lumia 950 and 950 XL at the Microsoft Devices event back in October, 2015. This is our review of Microsoft's latest budget offering.

Read full article @ Neowin

Native Union JUMP Cable Review

Portable power banks and cables for our mobile devices are extremely popular. Almost everyone I know has a portable power bank. We want to be connected all of the time and in doing so we diminish our devices batteries before we have time to charge them up. If you are an iPhone user I’m sure you’ve gone through your fair share of cables. Plain and simple Apple makes horrible cables. Well Native Union has a device that solves both of these problems. It is their JUMP Cable which they say is the “world’s first 2-in-1 charging cable and portable battery booster.” So you have a portable power bank that also has a charging cable built in. But unlike many power banks that have a cable built in this one allows for to connect your device and also connect to an external power source to charge up the power bank and your device at the same time! The JUMP cable seems like the perfect accessory to have with you at all times, let’s take a look and see if that is true!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

NVIDIA Introduces New, High-Quality Shadow And Lighting Techniques And PhysX Updates In Latest GameWorks SDK

Although the names, or more specifically the acronyms, for some of the new technologies NVIDIA is unveiling today leaked out recently, details on what they offered gamers and how they worked were scarce. At the Game Developers Conference currently underway in San Francisco, however, NVIDIA officially took the wraps of some new graphics techniques for shadows and lighting – dubbed Hybrid Frustum Traced Shadows (HFTS), NVIDIA Volumetric Lighting, and Voxel Accelerated Ambient Occlusion (VXAO) – which can drastically improve in-game image quality. And the features are already being leverages in a trio of popular games, thanks to some recent updates and patches.

Earlier in the week, NVIDIA also announced availability of its latest NVIDIA GameWorks software development kit (SDK), which is now up to version 3.1. In addition to the aforementioned new lighting and shadowing techniques, the latest GameWorks SDK also offers a couple of beta updates to PhysX...

Read full article @ HotHardware

NZXT Manta Mini-ITX Case Review

The NZXT Manta computer case makes a great case for a water cooled mini-ITX gaming system. With enough room for two 280mm radiators at the top and the front, users can expect exceptional airflow thanks to its water cooling capabilities. NZXT’s new manufacturing process allows for the creation of curved panels, giving the user more work room for cable management while maintaining a sturdy construction all around. A 3.5″ HDD can also be installed behind the motherboard tray without worrying about it making contact with the curved side panels. The Manta mini-ITX can support any standard size ATX power supply unit with enough room for a single 3.5″ HDD in the power supply chamber. Benchmark Reviews is happy to review the NZXT Manta mini-ITX case in white. Let’s go over a quick overview of what this mini-ITX case has to offer.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

QNAP TS-253A Network Attached Storage Review

With ability to store a large size of data comes great responsibility. Heh, sounds like a corny line from a movie doesn't it? But it’s true. Entrusting someone with your precious data should not be taken lightly. If you are a family person then you probably have a bunch of home made movies and pictures of kids and other important … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Razer Naga Chroma Review

Razer have long been a player at the forefront of gaming technology for sometime and it would be a fairly safe thing to say that the Naga mouse is a firm favourite in the MMO gaming community. The body of the Naga has since developed over time, giving it its shapely ergonomic curves and the concave mechanical button grid where each button is shaped for a tactile feedback for easy no-see recognition. The tilt click scroll wheel increases the number of programmable buttons to a total of 19.

The Naga Chroma, as its name suggests, boasts the Chroma lighting system that is arguably amongst the most full and vibrant customisable RGB lighting we have seen. That isn't the only change, it is also equipped with the same true 16,000 DPI 5G laser sensor that is found in the Mamba Tournament Edition and is considered to be one of the most advanced laser sensors available.

Read full article @ Vortez

Synology DS216play 2-bay NAS

The DS216play is a multimedia-oriented NAS despite the fact that it doesn't feature an HDMI port. It supports 4K video transcoding, and its highly efficient SoC is crucial in reducing its overall power consumption.

Read full article @ techPowerUp