Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

13 16GB DDR3-memory kits for Intel Haswell Review
4K Gaming Showdown
Acer Iconia W4 Review
ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Review
ASUS Cerberus Gaming Headset Video Review
CeBIT 2014 Coverage with 150 pictures on 9 pages
CM Storm Trigger-Z Review
Corsair Raptor K40 Review
Creative Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 Intelligent Wireless Sound System Review
Crucial M550 512GB Solid State Drive Review
Crytek adopts AMDs Mantle API
Darksiders II 2-Years Later Review
Ducky Shine 3 Mechanical Keyboard Review
Exclusive Interview with Richard Huddy from Intel at GDC
Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH Motherboard
Intel Announces Ready Mode Technology: Using C7 for Syncing and Streaming
Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E CPU Review
Intel Desktop Roadmap Update
Intel Outs Haswell-E and Devil’s Canyon CPUs, Ready Mode Technology, and More at GDC
Intel Talks Haswell-E, Broadwell, Devil's Canyon & More
Intel to renew commitment to desktop PCs with a slew of new CPUs
Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 (Razer Green Switches) Review
The 10 Highest Paid Pro Gamers of All Time
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Headset (Iron White) Review
Western Digital Black2 2.5-inch Dual Drive Review

13 16GB DDR3-memory kits for Intel Haswell Review

When configuring a high end PC, chances are you are going to choose a 16 GB memory kit. We tested 13 different kits, which according to the manufacturers are well suited to be used in combination with a Haswell processor.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

4K Gaming Showdown

With GPUs getting more and more powerful and 4K monitors becoming available for consumer purchase we thought we’d use AMD’s R9 290X launch as a spring-board to look at the 4K Gaming performance of AMD and Nvidia’s top 2 single GPU graphics cards. Of course since writing this article Nvidia have revealed their intentions to release a GTX 780 Ti graphics card which is worth considering when looking at these benchmarks. AMD are also expected to reveal an R9 290 graphics card at some stage this year too. So this is by no means a comprehensive or complete look at 4K performance on high end AMD and Nvidia GPUs, but we think it is an interesting place to start.

Firstly let’s recap the graphics cards we’re using, all four are pictured above and they are:

AMD R9 290X – read our review here.
Nvidia GTX Titan – read our review here.
Nvidia GTX 780 – read our review here.
Sapphire Vapor-X OC AMD R9 280X – read our review here.

Next we’ve managed to get a hold of a 4K monitor for this testing as AMD were kind enough to provide us with the Sharp PN-K321 4K monitor.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Acer Iconia W4 Review

Eight inch and smaller tablets have been around for a while but up until a couple of years ago, the market largely consisted of rather generic Android slates aimed at those who didn't want to spend more cash on a full-size device. But as Google, Apple and Amazon entered the small tablet space, and Microsoft finally optimized Windows 8.1 for the form factor, the perception of these smaller tablets has shifted from something that’s simply cheaper to something that’s portable, convenient and worth a second look.

We’ve seen a flurry of 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets hit the market over the past several months, including the Toshiba Encore and the Lenovo Miix 2 8 (no, that isn’t a typo). Neither of these systems was terribly impressive in recent reviews but that doesn’t mean you should give up on Windows 8.1 slates just yet.

Read full article @ TechSpot

ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Review

For the AMD Kaveri launch, a number of review publications received the FM2A88X Extreme6+ from ASRock. This is a motherboard that was released several months before the Kaveri processors hit the market, but adhered to specifications for both Richland and Kaveri APUs. Today we are reviewing this motherboard, which threw up a surprise or two.

Read full article @ Anandtech

ASUS Cerberus Gaming Headset Video Review

Today Kaeyi Dream looks at the ASUS Cerberus gaming headset. ASUS describe it as a gaming headset with large 60mm neodymium drivers, designed for both PC gaming and mobile use.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

CeBIT 2014 Coverage with 150 pictures on 9 pages

The CeBIT 2014 computer fair in Hanover showed also in this year a lot of new products.
On the following 9 pages of the OCinside.de CeBIT 2014 report we published an overview of new IT products with approx. 150 pictures.
Our CeBIT 2014 report has the main focus on current PC hardware and contains new Desktop, Server and NUC motherboards, mobile products, chassis, cooler, PSUs, SSDs, NAS and wireless storage solutions.
It is published in German, but it is worth watching the pictures or use a translation tool to discover the latest trends.

Read full article @ OcInside.de

CM Storm Trigger-Z Review

Trigger-Z is the new gaming mechanical keyboard from CM Storm. The device has a big palm rest, few macro buttons, white backlight and much more. Our model uses CherryMX Brown but on the market there are several versions with different switches and backlights. Let's find out in this new review!

Read full article @ ocaholic

Corsair Raptor K40 Review

We review the rather colorful Corsair Raptor K40 gaming keyboard, with dome based keys and a rather wide variety of colors for backlighting. The K40 is a product in the "new" Raptor series from Corsair. It has a very recognizable look and concept, but it adds some more features, it has LED back-lit keys that you can customize colors wise.

Why did Corsair release a new Raptor series/range next to Vengeance you might wonder? Well Raptor originates from a company called Raptor, which Corsair back in mid-2012 purchased. Basically Raptor served the more mainstream products and market when is comes to headsets, keyboards, mice, game-pad controllers and mouse-pads. And Raptor was a good candidate for Corsair, after purchase things got rather quiet though.

Today's tested set of keys looks and feels a lot like the Vengeance line, but you'll notice why Raptor and Vengeance are different. Vengeance will serve as the more quality products and Raptor offers really good value for money. The first product in the Raptor series we test is the K40, a gaming series keyboard with fully LED lit keys and you can choose any color to lit them up. Next to that you receive a row of G keys you may program, you get on-board profile storage, multi-media controls and last but not least full key matrix anti-ghosting with full key rollover on USB.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Creative Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 Intelligent Wireless Sound System Review

I believe they call it convergence. This is why Swiss Army knives are so fantastic; they serve multiple purposes and come with multiple tools, all without having to be all that much bigger. We already experience this with our smartphones, which have come to replace our cameras, PDAs and MP3 players, so why not take the same kind of approach to all of our mobile accessories too? Why only do one thing when you can do many things?

The team at Creative must have been thinking the same thing when they came up with the Sound BlasterAxx AXX200. You might think that it’s just another Bluetooth speaker that you can use to share your tunes, but this “intelligent wireless sound system” is so much more than that. They’ve thrown everything at it but the kitchen sink, but does it really work?

Read full article @ MEGATechNews

Crucial M550 512GB Solid State Drive Review

At the start of the year during CES, the major buzz word of the show as we all know was 4K, but whilst this was a buzz word, in the storage sector there were other goings on the was stirring a whole heap of interest. For many years now we have been watching the solid state drive grow and grow, not only in terms of popularity but also their performance and most importantly capacity. One common factor that is associated with SSDs is with out a doubt their more weighty price tag in relation to their mechanical counterparts, however over the last year or so we’ve started to see the price per GB of storage come right down to a highly affordable level, which in turn has made the drives even more desirable.

During CES, Crucial had something rather special to shout about and when we look back to only a few years ago, what they had to shout about would have then sounded insane. This shout out that I’m referring to is a mainstream consumer 1TB – yes a ONE TERABYTE SSD. Because of the speed at which technology has been moving forward, we’ve seen die sizes shrink and bigger and faster NAND chips appear on the market, making the possibility of greater capacity drives, not only a reality, but also at a price that’s not too outrageous.

So forward comes the M500 SSD from Crucial, a drive that not only packs up to 960GB of storage, but also has the tech inside to ensure that it keeps up the pace right through to the last byte as we will see later on. Like many other drives these days, the M500 fits into an ultra slim 7mm frame, which is quickly becoming a new standard, but as some situations still require the thicker build, Crucial also include a self adhesive 2.5mm spacer which can be quickly stuck onto either side of the drive to make it fit that much better.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Crytek adopts AMDs Mantle API

The CRYENGINE will be developed to work with AMD's closer-to-the-metal API.

Read full article @ Hexus

Darksiders II 2-Years Later Review

Darksiders II is not a strong game, but it is one that can be enjoyed by many. It is a pity it is not better, but that is not enough to stop someone from playing it. Really this is a game now for those gamers who want a new game to experience, and do not need it to be the newest or the greatest. For those of you that fit this description, I can recommend it, but do not expect something great; just another fun experience.

Read full article @ OCC

Ducky Shine 3 Mechanical Keyboard Review

The Ducky Shine Series, arguably one of the best mechanical keyboards on the market, has released the Ducky Shine 3 DK9008S3. Often referred to as the YOTS or “Year of the Snake”, the 2013 Shine 3 is the offshoot descendant of the 2012 Year of the Dragon Shine 2 DK9087 (a tenkeyless version in the shine series). This model, like it’s predecessor, comes with a wide array of switch options including Cherry MX Black, Blue, Brown, and Red, and a wide array of LED color options including: Blue, Red, Green, White, Magenta, and Orange. With so many options, there is really no reason not to find the perfect fit for you in the Ducky Shine 3 DK9008S3-CUSALAAG1.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Exclusive Interview with Richard Huddy from Intel at GDC

When Lisa Graff, Intel VP for the Desktop Client Platforms Group, recently told KitGuru about her plans for 2014/2015, the focus was clearly on reinventing the desktop. As KitGuru reported a while back, there will be a resurgence on desktop for Intel going forward, which we believe will peak around 2017. To get a different take on this information, we caught up with Intel’s Gaming Guru, Richard Huddy who was just eyeing up the hotel’s perfectly rendered breakfast fruit when we spoke.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH Motherboard

The Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH is a high-end socket LGA1150 motherboard targeted for the fourth-generation Core i processors, coming with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, IEEE 802.11ac interface, five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (four of them can be used at the same time), overclocking buttons, and more. Check it out!

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

Intel Announces Ready Mode Technology: Using C7 for Syncing and Streaming

Intels conference call this week featured some elements on the progression of the desktop. Lisa Graff, VP and GM of Intels Desktop Client Platforms Group tells us that while Notebooks outsell Desktops by 57:43, key segments within the Desktop platform are actually growing rapidly – as much as 50% year-on-year for the Tiny PC space such as NUCs but also in the all-in-one market. Desktop is therefore a big part of the market, and this includes business more so than consumer based on shipments. Intel is also keen to point out that 2013 was a record year for i5/i7 shipments. Intel wants to spend 2014 accelerating the AIO side of desktop, grow the tiny PC side, and maximize the enthusiast segment. These all sound like buzz-words, but identifying areas of growth helps keep a business going.

The new feature wrapped around the AIO and Tiny PC segments is called Ready Mode Technology. This is the utilization of low C-states in Haswell CPUs to allow users to continue to use their PCs in non-traditional ways. The examples we were given include instant photograph synchronization when a mobile device enters the home network, or streaming across a network to a portable device such as a smartphone, tablet or portable AIO.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E CPU Review

Six cores, twelve threads, 3.6 GHz base, 4 GHz turbo, 15 MB of cache, quad-channel memory, and a 22nm die. The specs speak for themselves, the Intel Core i7-4960X is a monster.By now everyone knows Core i7 means performance. And when you tack that one little "X" to the end it goes from the best to the best-of-the-best. For those that may not be familiar with the naming scheme, the X means Extreme which is Intel's halo product. It is a no compromises top-of-the-line processor, and is unmatched by any other.

Read full article @ TechwareLabs.com

Intel Desktop Roadmap Update

Lisa Graff, Vice President and General Manager Desktop Client Platforms Group, gave a small group of journalists at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco an update on the future of Intel€™s desktop and enthusiast platforms. She also discussed the 2014 desktop roadmap and told us about several new and exciting products that Intel will be bringing to market this year. Read on to hear about the Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition Processor, 5th Generation Core Processors, Intel Extreme Edition Processors and a brand new processor called Devil's Canyon.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Intel Outs Haswell-E and Devil’s Canyon CPUs, Ready Mode Technology, and More at GDC

Intel used the backdrop of the Game Developers Conference currently taking place in San Francisco to make a handful of interesting announcements that run the gamut from low-power technologies to ultra-high-end desktop chips. In addition to outing a number of upcoming processors—from an Anniversary Edition Pentium to a monster 8-core Haswell-E—Intel also announced a new technology dubbed Ready Mode...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Intel Talks Haswell-E, Broadwell, Devil's Canyon & More

With the PC market evolving at a rapid pace, Intel has decided to “enhance” their roadmap by adding in a number of new products and refine associated timelines. While some of the information below will come as a surprise to the folks who were writing off Intel’s desktop aspirations, there’s a lot to be excited about. Details are still slim and we’re limited in what we can write about, let’s just say that 2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year, regardless of your budget

Contrary to predictions foreseeing doom and gloom for the desktop market, it has actually grown by 7% according to Intel’s own figures. Much of that success has been carried on the shoulders of the gamers and power users but there has also been a shift towards simple desk-bound systems as well. It seems like users are looking to tablets and other ultra-portable devices for their mobile needs while “coming back” into the inexpensive desktop space to suit their content creation and gaming requirements. As a result, the notebook and so-called “Ultrabook” segments haven’t seem much growth.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Intel to renew commitment to desktop PCs with a slew of new CPUs

Today, in a press conference at GDC, new Intel desktop CPU head Lisa Graff offered her assessment of the desktop PC market--which may not be what you'd expect--and offered a sneak peek at some upcoming products intended to revitalize Intel's desktop CPU business. Those include, blessedly, new Haswell parts with a better thermal interface material and packaging for improved overlclocking and a socketed Broadwell with Iris Pro graphics.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 (Razer Green Switches) Review

Back in late 2012, we received the opportunity to check out the 2013 refresh of the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate mechanical gaming keyboard which proved to be one of the best mechanical keyboards of its time as it not only had great styling, but great functionality and performance that well represented the Razer name in high performance gaming peripherals. Since then the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate continued to be one of our favorite mechanical gaming keybords, but with numerous competitors coming out with cheaper, similarly well performing mechanical gaming keyboards these days, there’s definitely been room for Razer to step up their game.

Now earlier this year at CES, one very interesting thing we heard from a number of gaming peripheral manufacturers was that the Cherry MX switch patents were expiring sometime this year. Seemingly as a result, a couple vendors began asking us for feedback regarding the possibility of them producing their own mechanical switches while some vendors such as Thermaltake went as far as showing off keyboards with ready to go Cherry MX clone switches.

Read full article @ Custom PC Review

The 10 Highest Paid Pro Gamers of All Time

Most of us consider gaming as a hobby, something we do in our free time to let off steam, relax and just have some fun. For other people gaming is a business, it is their job. Some of the best professional gamers make a living off of gaming and tournaments. Ever wondered how much these pro-gamers make? Well we have compiled a lost of the top 10 highest paid gamers of all time! Enjoy!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Headset (Iron White) Review

The Level 10 M Gaming Headset follows the design lines we have also found with the Level 10 M Mouse and was built in cooperation with Designworks USA, which is a BMW-owned consultancy. The product comes with connectivity cables for both PC and mobile devices, while the high-quality carry bag allows transportation at LAN parties without difficulties.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Western Digital Black2 2.5-inch Dual Drive Review

Hybrid drives have been around for some time now but not in the 2.5 inch category. A combo SSD + HDD profile that can replace a laptop or mobile drive with some smart technology is a welcome advancement.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc