Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

Crucial MX200 500GB review
Crucial's BX100 and MX200 solid-state drives reviewed
Fractal Design Core 2300
Gigabyte 17.3” P37X Gaming Notebook Now in North America
Gigabyte GTX 960
In Win 703
Intel NUC5i5RYK Broadwell-U Mini-PC Review
Intel to split the Atom into x3, x5 and x7 processor families
Kingston HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset Review
Phanteks PH-TC12LS CPU Cooler Review
Portable Smartphone Battery Pack Roundup Review

Crucial MX200 500GB review

Can it follow in the footsteps of the excellent MX100? Crucial shook up the solid-state drive (SSD) market last year by launching the value MX100. Value was laced with a few enterprise-class features that improved reliability for entry-level drives.

Nine months on sees the release of the MX200, focussing on the same value and reliability features but offering extra performance and some nifty caching technology, dubbed Dynamic Write Allocation, on the trio of drives. Here's how they stack up.

Read full article @ Hexus

Crucial's BX100 and MX200 solid-state drives reviewed

Crucial makes some of the most popular SSDs around, so we were eager to get our hands on its latest creations. The MX200 features a fancy write acceleration scheme that treats unused capacity as a dynamic SLC cache, while the BX100 dives deeper into budget territory with a no-frills package wrapped around a surprisingly potent Silicon Motion controller. Read on for the scoop on how both compare to a broad selection of alternatives.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Fractal Design Core 2300

The Fractal Design Core 2300 sits right in-between the Core 1300 and Core 3300 in the family of enclosures. It essentially offers the same layout and feature set as the Core 3300 for 10 Euro less. But will that result in a better price / performance ratio? We take a close look to find out.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Gigabyte 17.3” P37X Gaming Notebook Now in North America

Gigabyte has an interesting line of gaming notebooks these days, including their own brand of P-series laptops as well as the AORUS brand. We’re in the process of reviewing the P35X v3, which packs a GTX 980M into a 0.82” thick 15.6” chassis, and now Gigabyte sends word that they have officially launched the big brother P37X with a 17.3” chassis in the North American market. It’s actually slightly thicker than the P35X, and the design language is very similar as well. That’s either good or bad depending on what you’re looking for in a gaming notebook.

On the one hand it’s generally slimmer (0.9”) and lighter (6.17 lbs.) than competing notebooks from Alienware, ASUS, Clevo, and MSI; however, keeping things cool in a thinner chassis generally means either more noise from the fans, higher temperatures, or both. It’s also either a conservative and subdued looking design, or it’s boring – I tend to like less bling on my laptops, but others are happier with multi-colored keyboard backlighting and a more aggressive industrial design.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Gigabyte GTX 960

We all have our own style preferences and this is no different when it comes to video cards. So when Gigabyte wanted to send out their GTX 960 I wasn’t about to turn it down enough though we have already covered a few other GTX 960’s. I wanted to see how Gigabytes offering compares to the competition, both with its performance and also with its styling. If we didn’t have variety we would all be running the exact same PC configuration and that wouldn’t be any fun. So today I’m going to put the Gigabyte GTX 960 through our standard benchmark suite as well as take a closer look at what makes it tick to find out if this is the best GTX 960 to pick up for your new budget build.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

In Win 703

Today we are checking out the latest mid-tower case from In Win designed for do-it-yourself gamers on a budget. Known simply as the ‘703’ this sleek looking case might be designed for budget users, but it offers a number of quality features such as a custom case window, ventilated front panel and the ability to support a wide range of hardware...

By far the most popular type of case is the mid-tower as it supports the ever abundant ATX form factor motherboards and power supplies. Of the literally hundreds and hundreds of mid-towers available, most are priced between $50 - $75.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

Intel NUC5i5RYK Broadwell-U Mini-PC Review

Intel recently released its latest generation of NUC small form factor systems, based on the company’s low-power Broadwell-U series processors. The primary advantages of Intel’s 5th Generation Core Series Broadwell-U-based processors are better performance-per-watt, stronger integrated graphics, and a smaller footprint, all things that are perfectly suited to the NUC (Next Unit of Computing) products.

We got our hands on a Core i5-powered version dubbed the NUC5i5RYK. To be more specific, this little machine is packing a Core i5-5250U processor with on-die Intel HD 6000 series graphics. The system also sports built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, M.2 SSD support, and a host of other features...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Intel to split the Atom into x3, x5 and x7 processor families

Representing the good/better/best Atom chips respectively. Intel has announced that it will update the Atom processor range by dividing it into three distinct, easily recognisable processor families. Tipping a hat to the success of its Core iX range of processors the next generation of Atom processors will be subdivided by good/better/best levels of performance into the Atom x3, x5 and x7 ranges respectively.

With hybrids and 2-in-1s expected to be popular for the foreseeable future, and with many of them at the cheaper end of the market expected to be Intel Atom powered, making it easier for customers to simply assess Atom processor performance levels is a good move. Rather than having to understand processor SKU numbers a customer can quickly compare brands of Atom-powered devices weighing up all the other variables such as screen, storage, other features and price to get the best device.

Read full article @ Hexus

Kingston HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset Review

Last year we took a look at Kingston’s original HyperX Cloud Gaming headset and there really was not much to not like about it. Now on its second iteration we are quite excited to see what Kingston has done to make this headset even better. The biggest change is the addition of 7.1 virtual surround sound via a USB controller with DSP sound card. Do not worry though you still have the ability to use the Cloud II with a 3.5 mm plug if you wish. Kingston has pretty much retained the same design with the Cloud II as we saw on the original headset. This means you have that brushed aluminum build with a very comfortable headband, stitched HyperX logo, and two sets of earcups. Is this the gaming headset for you? Read on as we find out…

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Phanteks PH-TC12LS CPU Cooler Review

Placed in confined spaces, a compact cooler has to rise to the occasion. Although hopefully not too much as height restrictions also apply. This is why the C-type heatpipe design is popularly used for CPU coolers destined for small-form factor enclosures. This type of cooler has its own set of design issues it must overcome to be a viable solution, … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Portable Smartphone Battery Pack Roundup Review

Today we’ll take a look in to a few different portable battery pack offerings from companies from around the globe. You’re quite possibly just like me – in the beginning you weren’t exactly certain why people would want or need to invest in a portable battery and maybe even thought of them to be quite useless. Then came along my Galaxy S4. As great as the phone performs, even when I’m out and about at tech expos’ or traveling around, my phone will be flat in a few hours – even with all precautions possible taken.

Screen brightness down, check. GPS off, check. Wireless disabled, check. Background applications closed, yep. Then, as your 6th hour away from a USB port rolls around, you hear that all-too-noteable “bloop bloop” – your phone is warning you that only 15% of your battery remains. In comes our hero, in the form of a 5,000 mAh – 11,000 mAh power bank. If you’re going to take most large-brand consumer phones into account, they’ll be providing you with an average battery sizing of around 2,600 mAh – as seen in Samsung’s Galaxy S4. If you’re running a 5,000 mAh battery pack and take into account some small power losses along the way, you’re looking at about 1.8 full charges of your device.

Read full article @ eTeknix