Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AKG K553 Pro Studio Headphones Review
AMD plans comeback with Zen x86 processor and ARM chips for the data centre
be quiet! Pure Rock
Corsair H100i GTX Review
COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review
Huawei Honor 6 Plus review - the best phone you've probably never heard of
HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe G2 x4 480GB
In the moment with Project Cars
Nikon 1 J5 Review
Patriot Viper 4 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Memory Kit Review
QPAD 8K Pro Gaming Laser Mouse Review
Scythe Ashura CPU Cooler Review
Sentey Kairos Pro Gaming Mousepad Review
Silverstone Mammoth MM01 Review
Toshiba Canvio Connect 2 TB External HDD Review
Zalman Z11 Neo Mid-Tower Case Review

AKG K553 Pro Studio Headphones Review

Reference audio is important for music producers, video editors, audio engineers and really anyone whose taste in music leans towards natural and non-colored sound signature. AKG by Harman is one of the grand names within the audio sphere and their latest K553 Pro studio headphones promise an excellent package for monitoring, mixing and mastering with a reasonable price of $199.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

AMD plans comeback with Zen x86 processor and ARM chips for the data centre

Chipmaker discloses high-performance Zen core for x86 and K12 ARM chip coming in 2017

Read full article @ V3

be quiet! Pure Rock

be quiet! looks to take over the entry level cooler market with their new Pure Rock heatsink. Offering the exceptional build quality you know and love and a top-notch silent fan, it has the specifications and features you'd expect. Its relatively tame price just improves its value for those looking for good, quiet, and affordable cooling.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Corsair H100i GTX Review

Corsair continues its flow of liquid cooler releases...

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review

The scroll wheel was an issue I only found from "longer" use, that I probably would not have noticed in a typical review testing time frame. After enough use, it started to squeak a bit, and in general make more noise. However, enough use later, and it's back to no squeak. It seems like it will be something that comes and goes. It still works, and that is most important. I did find that because of the sniper button, the mouse itself is a little more susceptible to static shock. I live in the desert and the office has carpet. A dry day and dragging my socks I sat down and got a good shock myself; through the sniper button and into the ports. Didn't like that – neither did the mouse. Shut off till I gave it another port. Was happy again on reboot – but still. OUCH!

Read full article @ OCC

Huawei Honor 6 Plus review - the best phone you've probably never heard of

Honor may be Huawei's e-commerce brand, but the company is making waves and the Honor 6 Plus aims to do this by bringing phablet-like flagship specs with a mid-range price. Is it any good though? Read more...

Read full article @ Neowin

HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe G2 x4 480GB

Last week I took a look at Kingston’s latest HyperX SATA SSD the Savage. Now today I have the chance to look at their flagship SSD the Predator. The Predator is an M.2 x4 drive that is available with and without a PCI Express card to M.2 adapter. For our testing today I will be using it with the adapter to see what everyone can expect for performance, but if your PC supports a x4 M.2 slot you can save yourself a lot of space and keep a PCIe slot open by running the drive through it. M.2 is the replacement for mSATA. Running the drive over M.2 gives a direct connection to the CPU and when run in a x4 configuration it gives us up to 20GB/s bandwidth. In other words for the first time in a long time we aren’t limited by the SATA connection. With that I’m extremely excited to see what the Predator is capable of!

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

In the moment with Project Cars

In his latest blog post, TR's Geoff Gasior gets behind the wheel in Project Cars, a new PC driving game with realistic handling and jaw-dropping graphics. This may be the best-looking game in any genre, and it feels as real as it looks.

Read full article @ Tech Report

Nikon 1 J5 Review

Nikon's compact system camera (CSC) line-up seemed to start well when the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon V1 were first announced back in September 2011. But after an initial flurry of impressive sales reports, the market seemed to lose interest. However, the changes brought by the latest introduction, the Nikon 1 J5, could see renewed interest from Nikon SLR lovers looking for a smaller alternative. With its new 20.8 million pixel CX-format (one-inch) sensor, the J5 has the highest resolution of any Nikon 1 camera yet. What's more, the new sensor is backside illuminated, which means that the circuitry is out of the way of the light receptors, allowing them to be larger than they would otherwise be. This should be good news for low light performance. Additionally, as with previous Nikon 1 cameras, the sensor has no anti-aliasing filter, which should make it good at resolving fine detail.A new Expeed 5A processing engine makes the J5 faster, as well as enabling more movie options (the Nikon J4 and Nikon V3 use Expeed 4A).

Read full article @ Techradar

Patriot Viper 4 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Memory Kit Review

When Intel released its latest X99 platform and Haswell-E extreme processors, most big players in the computer memory were ready with several products of their own that offered a new memory standard in the form of DDR4 memory kits. These kits come with higher module density and lower voltage requirements, which translate into better performance levels compared to previous generation DDR3 technology. This new standard is also maturing at an impressive pace, and today's Viper 4 review sample from Patriot is the perfect example boasting modules running at 3000MHz out of the box!

Founded in 1985, Patriot manufactures high performance, enthusiast memory modules with the goal of offering a perfect blend of quality and value for consumers. The Viper 4 series featured in today's review is situated in the mid-range of Patriot’s DDR4 product stack and is geared towards the enthusiast on a budget not looking to pay a premium for the Viper Extreme Edition but still wants more performance and cooling potential than what the value-oriented Signature Line offers. The Viper 4 series utilizes a custom heat shield designed to improve heat dissipation and allow for better system stability. The Viper 4 memory kits are currently available at speeds ranging from 2400MHz up to 3000MHz with capacities of 16GB and 32GB, and are XMP 2.0 ready. These quad channel kits are also backed by a lifetime warranty and Patriot's reputation.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

QPAD 8K Pro Gaming Laser Mouse Review

Pro Gaming, eSports, LAN gaming or simply just playing your favourite games at home after a hard day at work, it doesn’t matter how and when you game, having the right tools for the job can make it a far more enjoyable experience. A great gaming mouse might not necessarily make you a better gamer, but it can help you game at the best of your abilities. The QPAD 8K Pro Gaming Laser Mouse has been designed to offer premium performance, for those who want to ensure they have every edge when they go into their digital battlefield; but is it any good? That’s what I hope to find out.

As you can see from the specifications below, the 8K is very well equipped, with a high-performance sensor for fast and accurate tracking, adjustable report rates, built-in memory, Omron switches, an ergonomic design and a few extras such as a braided cable and gold-plated connectors for good measure.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Scythe Ashura CPU Cooler Review

Scythe has been making CPU coolers for quite a long time and today we have another one of their CPU coolers to review. The Scythe Ashura’s main goal is user-friendliness and a compact heatsink design while not sacrificing efficient cooling performance. The Ashura is designed as a single-tower cooler with six copper heatpipes and a 140 mm cooling fan. The cooler is compatible with all modern sockets on both the Intel and AMD side. Will this cooler be easy to install? And more importantly will it be able to compete with other tower coolers out there? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Sentey Kairos Pro Gaming Mousepad Review

I’ve reviewed quite a few mousepad in my time as a reviewer and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a good mousepad is something that everyone should own. Most people think any mousepad will do, but that’s just not true at all and it’s not just for gaming either. A good mousepad can affect everything you do, your regular work or browsing and obviously your gaming. Mousepads come in two general categories, hard and soft. Hard pads are usually one of many various types of plastic but they can also be glass, soft pads are usually some sort of cloth. There are pros and cons for each of them, and some people prefer one over the other. I personally prefer a hard surface pad but I also like a soft or cloth pad as it’s easily transported and they seem to be less prone to damage during travelling or storage.

Today for review I have a gaming mousepad that is both hard and soft offering the qualities of a cloth mousepad while also offering the slickness of a hard mousing surface. The pad is called the Kairos Pro and it’s from Sentey, it’s about twelve inches by ten inches in size so it should fit most desk spaces. The pad though is soft like cloth and can be rolled up but yet it does have a hard plastic surface that offers excellent tracking no matter how fast or slow you move your mouse. Read on to learn more..

Read full article @ Technogog

Silverstone Mammoth MM01 Review

Today we are checking out the first and thus far only addition to Silverstone’s new Mammoth professional chassis series. Designed for harsh or critical environments, the Mammoth MM01 features a HEPA filter making it dust proof, while unique ventilation means it is also spill-proof...

The least complex component of any computer is the box it’s built in. That said the computer case has evolved significantly from the beige box of yesteryear.

Each year we see new and innovative designs that have helped to improve cooling performance, reduce operating volume, significantly reduce dust build-up and crucially fit more gear inside.

A big driving force behind case innovation has been Silverstone who has literally flipped the world of computer cases on its head.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

Toshiba Canvio Connect 2 TB External HDD Review

Users are always damanding more and more storage space, not only inside their computers, but also as portable external hard disk drives. Nowadays, 2 TB portable external drives are becoming popular, and we will test the Toshiba 2 TB Canvio Connect, comparing it to the Seagate 2 TB Backup Plus Slim and the Western Digital 2 TB My Passport Ultra that we've already reviewed. They are all compact drives and make use of the USB 3.0 interface. Which one is the fastest? Let's see!

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

Zalman Z11 Neo Mid-Tower Case Review

This new take on the Z11 design features a new exterior design, mounts for water cooling and filtered intakes, along with the sleek, jet-inspired exterior design from the original Z11. In this article for Benchmark Reviews, I will cover the Zalman Z11 Neo and discuss the changes Zalman has made from the Z11 Plus before delivering my final rating.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews