Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

aLLreLi USB Car Chargers Review
AMD will not support coreboot on Zen
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact Review
ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Formula Review
Cooler Master Sentinel III Review
Cougar 500M Review
Crucial MX200 500GB mSATA SSD Review
Dell Latitude 13 7370 hands-on review
GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING Review
In Depth with EVGA's Prototype Gamer Case
Intel P3700 400GB PCI-Express SSD review: first look at NVMe satisfies
Intel Skylake bug seizes up PCs running complex workloads
MSI 990FXA Gaming Versus ASRock 990FX Killer
SanDisk Updates DAS Lineup at CES
SmartBB Hi-Fi Bluetooth Speaker Review
Ten Best Of CES 2016
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS CRONOS AD Gaming Headphones Review
Want 1080p playback on Netflix? Don’t use Firefox or Chrome
Water Cooling 101: Your Parts Arrived, Now What?
With Skylake Out, It's Becoming Easier To Build A Cheap Haswell Xeon Linux System
Z170 Motherboard Charts: 14 Models tested - Supermicro C7Z170-OCE

aLLreLi USB Car Chargers Review

First world problems. This is not the first time this term has been brought up here at APH Networks, and I am sure it will not be the last. I mean, it was just talked about a few months ago in the SilverStone Ensemble EBA01 review. However, these problems are as real as it gets. One of the biggest first world problems I see with myself, and many of my friends, is the need for more power. Not political or physical power, but power, as in battery power for our electronic devices. There is always a need for more juice for our smartphones nowadays, but then you can add the iPod, iPad, Kindle, hipster MacBook, and whatever you may have, all to this thirsty list. With all these mobile devices, you can never have too much power. We rely heavily on these devices, so when it does runs out of the power, we feel as if we cannot go on. How many times have you or your friend seen the low power notification from your phone, or any of your devices? The answer would probably be daily or very often, unless you have your devices plugged in 24/7/365 for as long as you own the device. Hence, we need a solution that can ensure we have a way to replenish this power. This brings us to the products we have for review today. A possible solution for those who like to have all their devices on them, but is also a driver, is a USB car charger. Today, we do not have one, but three aLLreLi USB car chargers. Read on to find out if they give us the power we need to cross a problem off our first world problems list!

Read full article @ APH Networks

AMD will not support coreboot on Zen

Ironically caused by the death of Sage The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn that AMD will not support CoreBoot on Zen.

Coreboot is an optional open-source firmware to replace the proprietary UEFI/BIOS and AMD has been supporting it since 2011.
According to TechFrog AMD deep throats have suggested that the company’s next-gen products won’t work with Coreboot.
The reason is that one of its key partners in supporting the free software project Sage Electronic Engineering went bust a few months ago. Since Sage closed AMD has slowed down making commits to the project. Certainly the number of changes to the software has dried up since Sage died.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact Review

When you look at the stock performance, the Maximus VIII Impact is going to deliver results in a narrow envelope when compared to other motherboards. That's a given. However, running out of spec is where this little board will shine, much like the rest of the ROG Z170-based motherboards in ASUS' product stack. From the PCB up, ASUS ROG DNA is piled up in every corner of the board. Things like ASUS' Impact Power III 6+2+2 phase implementation of ASUS' Extreme Engine DIgi+ VRM controls equipped with Microfine alloy chokes, 10K Black capacitors, and Power PowlRstage MOSFETs that allow it to overclock just as well as any ATX form factor board. Backing all that up, ASUS uses its Pro Clock technology to allow for extended bClk ranges that exceed what are commonly available as seen by the 350MHz bClk shots in the overclocking section. The ASUS T-Topology DRAM trace layout and memory training algorithms make it easier to push for big memory overclocks that don't compromise performance for the sake of clock speed, although you can take that route as the M8I supports memory speeds of 4133MHz right out of the box.

Read full article @ OCC

ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Formula Review

We test the ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII Formula. Armed with a bling customizable RGB LED system, some extensive shielding and then regulars like the hippest features of 2015 and you are sure you'll have the right infrastructure for gaming de-li-cious product. If you fire it up with that new 14nm Skylake based Core i7 6700K processor this product will bring a smile to your face. The Formula ticks the most proper right boxes in terms of its feature-set and aesthetics. I'm not solely talking about the RGB LED system even, as we see a proper AC WIFI (MU-MIMO Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A) solution SLI/Crossfire support, SATA3 connectors, M.2., overclock features, a very nice audio solution and much more. A motherboard that offers plenty of features to provide your Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Skylake processor the full infrastructure is needs for a delicious gaming PC. Dressed in black and with added benefits like USB 3.1, a fully fetched M.2. slot and DDR4 support the product will amaze. Last but not least, it even comes with a factory-installed CrossChill EK hybrid cooling block from EKWB covering power delivery.

These motherboards can (well must) be paired with new Skylake-S series processors. We'll quickly dive into the two most import ones. Skylake Core i5-6600K and Core i7 6700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. We test both processors, yet have separate reviews on each of these processors. A new chip, a new package meaning both of them are Socket 1151. The new series Skylake processors are energy efficient, quite powerful and this need to be paired with a new motherboards series. For you guys that means the Z170 and h170 range. In this review we test the Core i5 6600K. An unlocked Skylake processor that has four cores and slim a 92W TDP, that is lower compared to Haswell with its 95W TDP, thanks to the new and smaller 14nm fabrication process. The quad core CPU has 8 MB L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. The Z170 and H170 series motherboards will all be offered with DDR4 though. For the gaming community two processors are the most important. The Core i7 6700K has Four CPU cores with Hyper-Threading, 4.0GHz frequency, 4.20GHz maximum Turbo Boost frequency. Then there is the Core i5 6600K with four cores, 3.50GHz frequency and a 3.90GHz maximum Turbo Boost frequency, both based on the new LGA1151 socket package. Skylake is the code-name used by Intel for the 14nm processor micro-architecture under development and is the successor to the Broadwell architecture. So then, the MSI Z170A SLI PLUS edition motherboard sits in their PRO series range. This is the affordable segment, and with prices at € 159,- with a tenner cheaper in USD you'll be amazed as to what you are purchasing. Sure some stuff is cut out, like on-board power/reset buttons / WIFI and an extra M.2. slot, but other than that, it's more of the same at exactly the same enthusiast class performance. The Z170A SLI PLUS in fact is a very feature rich product for the money, and if you have a peek below ... it will look terrific in any DIY PC build as well thanks to that all dark and clean looking PCB.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Cooler Master Sentinel III Review

We first had a look at the CM Storm Sentinel way back in 2009, which impressed is with its forward thinking, performance and feature set. The Sentinel III is the latest incarnation where we see the ergonomic palm grip shape return with its adjustable weight system, LED headlights and customisable OLED display with various improvements.

Say goodbye to the rubberised grips and say hello to a sleek looking, hard wearing matte UV coating which gives a slight glamourous sparkle to the aesthetics. The Sentinel III adopts the use of the Avago 3988 optical sensor capable of 6400 DPI and 50g of mouse acceleration. You will now find a 32bit ARM processor with 512KB on-board memory for saving profiles for on the go use. There have also been a number of improvements within the software to allow a new TX mode, (acts similar to ROCCAT's Easy Shift [+]) which enables further expansion and use of the 8 programmable buttons.

Read full article @ Vortez

Cougar 500M Review

With the 500M, Cougar has yet another gaming mouse in its portfolio, which is suitable for right handed gamers and apart from that the rodent comes with an optical sensor from PixArt. There is also a customizable backlight as well as programmable buttons. At a first glance also the design is looking good and at this point we're rather curious to see whether Cougar is able to convince us with this product or not.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Crucial MX200 500GB mSATA SSD Review

Who would like to upgrade a small HTPC, Barebone or ultra-thin notebook with a fast SSD, requires mostly either a M.2 SSD or a mSATA SSD. After the review of the 2.5-inch Crucial MX200 and MX200 M.2 we like to test on OCinside.de today, how well the Crucial MX200 mSATA succeeded and compare the benchmarks to the Crucial M550 mSATA SSD, Plextor M5M mSATA SSD as well as dozens of other SSDs in different formats. In this new review, we will see whether the tiny Crucial MX200 500 GB mSATA SSD can keep up with the excellent test results of the large SATA MX200 and the M.2 MX200.

Read full article @ OcInside

Dell Latitude 13 7370 hands-on review

Dell imitates its own XPS line to refashion the business laptop

Read full article @ The Inquirer

GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING Review

Back in November GIGABYTE extended XTREME GAMING support to other NVIDIA variants after the successful launch of the series with the GTX 950. The philosophy behind XTREME GAMING is quite simple – deliver outstanding, performance, cooling, outlook, protection and durability and so as you may have guessed, each graphics card will be given that premium treatment, squeezing out the very best.

Today we are to look at the GTX 970 XTREME GAMING. GIGABYTE has taken this mid-high end graphics card and equipped it with the highly revered WindForce 3x cooling system, applied a factory overclock and kitted it out with customisable LED Lighting. Combine these very attribute with the feature-set that XTREME GAMING brings and we have a rather exciting proposition in the spotlight today.

Read full article @ Vortez

In Depth with EVGA's Prototype Gamer Case

While EVGA introduced a number of concrete products at CES 2016, they also took the opportunity to show off some prototypes that were still a work in progress, like the Gaming Case. This is a large - very large in fact - case that was designed with the enthusiast gamer in mind. As such, it puts a very heavy emphasis on custom liquid cooling capabilities and support for 4-way SLI. Despite its lofty ambitions, this case should retail for about $79 for the basic model and under $150 for the flagship edition that will come decked out with every feature.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Intel P3700 400GB PCI-Express SSD review: first look at NVMe satisfies

Last year Intel introduced the P3700, P3600 and P3500 series, the first SSDs with the PCI-Express interface that combined four lanes with the modern NVMe protocol. This combination means that these professional SSDs are capable of higher speeds than the conventional Serial ATA and AHCI models. We tested the 400GB variant of the P3700 series.

A high-end PC without an SSD is almost unthinkable and SSDs are taking the place of the old hard disk in servers as well. The considerably better performance of SSDs when it comes to read and write commands, but as well as with random workloads, mean that changing HDDs to SSDs can give a significant boost in performance for a lot of server tasks. Certainly web servers – where a lot of clients access a lot of small files simultaneously – and database servers – where there are a lot of random read- and write commands – can benefit a great deal by using SSDs. We can confirm this from our own experience with the servers of Hardware.Info.

Most server SSDs up until now come in 2.5” size and use the Serial ATA interface, the same as a regular computer would. This is because by using an existing form factor and interface the SSDs are a drop-in replacement for regular hard disks. However Serial ATA, including SATA600, is a limiting factor for SSDs. The interface is limited to 600 MB/s, in practice this mostly means 550 MB/s. Modern SSDs can reach these speeds easily by using multiple parallel flashchips. Because Serial ATA 1200 is not in the making SSD manufacturers are looking at PCI-Express as new interface. PCI-Express 3.0 with two lanes can manage speeds of up to 2 GB/s, PCI-Express 3.0 x4 can reach 4 GB/s.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Intel Skylake bug seizes up PCs running complex workloads

Bug was discovered by mathematicians using Prime95 software. BIOS update fix is promised.

Read full article @ Hexus

MSI 990FXA Gaming Versus ASRock 990FX Killer

Today, I will be reviewing the 990FX chipset but, more importantly, ASRock and Gigabyte's offerings to the gaming community.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

SanDisk Updates DAS Lineup at CES

Billy and I met with SanDisk at their CES 2016 suite. While Billy talked to them about their internal SSD efforts, I checked out the updates to their direct-attached storage (DAS) offerings. SanDisk had a relatively straightforward launch set, with just three new products in this space.

The SanDisk Extreme 510 Portable SSD (in the middle of the above picture) is based on the same platform as the Extreme 500 Portable SSD that we reviewed recently. The only differences lie in the fact that the new one comes in only one capacity - 480GB. It also carries a IP55 rating (dust and water resistance), thanks to the rubber bumper around the unit. It is targeted towards content creators who want rugged high capacity storage in the field. As I had mentioned in my review of the Extreme 500 Portable SSD, the speeds are very satisfying - but, only when connected to the right host controller. In our testing, we got better performance numbers with ASMedia USB host controllers compared to Intels native controllers integrated in the PCH. The unit is priced at $250, and will be available in retail channels in a few weeks.

Read full article @ Anandtech

SmartBB Hi-Fi Bluetooth Speaker Review

Up for review today I’ve got a Bluetooth speaker that’s not only Bluetooth, but it has a 3.5mm jack along with micro SD card slot so it can be used like an MP3 player. The speaker is just called the SmartBB Hi-Fi Bluetooth speaker and it’s very well made with a mirrored stainless steel covering that makes it look great. The sound is very good and overall it’s a great little speaker. Read on to learn more…

Read full article @ Technogog

Ten Best Of CES 2016

We covered a lot of miles at CES 2016 this year, our fitness trackers often chirping "success" rather early in the day, but we saw a lot of people and a lot of tech gear in our travels. Some of it was hot - damn hot - some of it, not so much. There were some recurring themes this year, as with every year at CES it seems. The hot topics and trends this year were autonomous cars, virtual reality, more thin and light computing and of course more powerful gaming gear.

Every Tech Web publication has its own short list of the best products showcased at CES 2016. We're going to run down our top 10 products we saw on display at the show, in no order of importance or preference. However, we will group them together in terms of product type, just so your head isn't spinning like ours was, after the better part of a week in the sensorial overload that is Las Vegas...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS CRONOS AD Gaming Headphones Review

With the gaming industry constantly being oversaturated with fancier and fancier gaming peripherals it’s very easy for the everyday consumer to get confused with what to purchase. What features make or break the product? What should they spend? Fortunately enough, Thermaltake has heard everyone’s pleas and have produced one great pair of gaming headphones for the gamer on a budget: Thermaltake’s Tt eSPORTS CRONOS AD Gaming Headphones.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Want 1080p playback on Netflix? Don’t use Firefox or Chrome

Netflix is without doubt a very popular service that allows you to watch TV shows and movies by streaming them to devices you are using. The service is a lot cheaper than cable in most countries it is offered in, and since it is digital, enables you to pick what you want to watch.

Read full article @ gHacks

Water Cooling 101: Your Parts Arrived, Now What?

Now that you’ve had a little bit of time with your shiny new gear, opened every box, checked every fitting, I bet you can’t wait to start installing parts! Well hold on for just a minute there cowboy. Before we can start the real fun there are few chores that must be done to prepare those brand new parts for use. Of course you could throw caution to the wind and skip this whole article but I wouldn’t recommend it. As nice and shiny as those parts appear on the outside, due to the manufacturing processes involved the insides are not usually so pristine. So welcome to Water Cooling 101 Episode 4; where we help you get your parts ready for use.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

With Skylake Out, It's Becoming Easier To Build A Cheap Haswell Xeon Linux System

Now that Skylake Xeon processors are appearing at major Internet retailers in sufficient quantities (such as the recently reviewed Intel Xeon E3 1245 v5), prices on older-generation Xeon CPUs are falling further. With prices on DDR3, SSDs, and Haswell-compatible motherboards also continuing to fall, it's possible to build a sufficiently powerful yet cheap Haswell Xeon system.

In needing another Linux test system for a Phoronix Test Suite enterprise customer, I opted to do a Haswell Xeon build rather than a Skylake Xeon system. While the Xeon Skylakes are great as shown by my recent E3-1245 v5 Linux benchmarks, they are more expensive and as outlined in that earlier review really require a very modern Linux distribution to play nicely. If using Skylake graphics in particular, a Linux 4.3+ kernel is needed for best support. So in some cases, a Haswell Xeon system still makes sense if wanting to use an older, long-term-supported enterprise Linux distribution and if going after the best value.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Z170 Motherboard Charts: 14 Models tested - Supermicro C7Z170-OCE

In our comparison tables, meanwhile you find benchmark values regarding 14 recent Z170 motherboards. Furthermore we do not comment the benchmark values. The idea and also the goal is to present to you a market overview which helps you choose the right motherboard.

Read full article @ ocaholic