Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ASUS X99 TUF SaberTooth Review
Corsair Carbide 100R Case Review
i-Rocks Golem Series K50E Scissor-Switch Gaming Keyboard Review
Intel NUC5i7RYH With Iris Pro Graphics Mini-PC Review
Is Windows 10 Free? Yes, and No. An Explainer
Kubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet - Loading ... 99%
OCZ Vector 180 480GB Solid State Drive Review
Patriot Ignite M2 480 GB
PC Specialist Vulcan 440 Review
Silence is golden: 24 silent cases, reviewed
Synology DiskStation DS2015xs Review
The making of Damagebox 2015

ASUS X99 TUF SaberTooth Review

The Intel Core i7-5960X and other Haswell-E chips were released into the market in September 2014, based on a new socket LGA2011-V3 infrastructure and DDR4 quad channel memory. The Haswell-E series released features three models, two 6 core and one 8 core processor intended for the most high-end desktops anno 2014. For Intel it is the first 8 core desktop CPU for consumers. However, Intel has been offering 8 and even 12 core processors in their Xeon server line for quite some time now to the business channel. With the new Haswell-E processor comes a new chipset and slightly revised processor socket. Intel still uses Socket 2011, but its a revision 3 socket meaning the older Socket 2011 will not work on the new X99 chipset motherboards. That of course goes both ways, you cannot use Haswell-E on say an X79 motherboard. Interesting is a first introduction of DDR4 memory. The new memory allows for lower voltage memory modules, this memory defaults to 2133 MHz at 1.2 Volts. However the memory controller is quad-channel compatible. As a result, with overclocked memory at roughly 3 GHz, you can reach 70, maybe 80 GB/sec on your memory bandwidth, which is an insane number. In this article we'll have a chat about a X99 motherboard in terms of the chipset and then we'll throw a decent photo-shoot and a benchmark suite at the products and get an indication of what performance is like with the Intel Core i7-5960X and X99 Platform.

This is the Intel Z99 chipset based TUF (The Ultimate Force) motherboard from ASUS and yeah it's a handsome motherboard alright, if it's your taste of course. X99 is the Intel chipset predominantly released for Haswell-E based processors. The accompanying motherboards will have a hefty feature set. This SaberTooth actually comes with the new USB 3.1 connector. The result is a motherboard based on a dark ceramic design whilst being armed some nice features. The Sabertooth X99 now has a slightly altered designed set of Thermal Armor. If you wonder what that is, it is the heat plastic shield on top, meant to direct air flow and keep the motherboard's components protected and better cooled. Upgraded as well is a backplate that secures the board against bending and bowing when installing expansion. This article is a full review of what you may expect from the TUF series Sabertooth X99, a series designed for high durability and efficient cooling with Intel's 4th-generation Haswell-E processors. All-in-all this motherboard offers it all, so join me in an extensive review and overview of what ASUS has to offer with the TUF series SaberTooth motherboard, next page please. But not before you've had a peek of course.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Corsair Carbide 100R Case Review

Ever since the dominant release of the Obsidian 800D, Corsair has continued to dominate the chassis market with constant new releases and exciting prospect for the future line ups too. However with competition rising and user standards always evolving, the Corsair brand is finding new ways to infiltrate the mass market to spread its level of influence. The Carbide series of cases was meant to do exactly that with more friendly prices while keeping in line with the core elements of simple assembly and functional interiors. The Carbide 100R is one of the cheapest cases we’ve seen from Corsair at $49 and $59 for the Silent Edition that promises to satisfy the budget conscious consumer.

Aesthetically the 100R is a simple black box with brushed plastic front panel. Those who crave a more “gamer” looking case can check out the Spec line sharing an identical internal layout with 100R but featuring a more aggressive front panel + LED fan.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

i-Rocks Golem Series K50E Scissor-Switch Gaming Keyboard Review

It has been almost a year since I reviewed the fantastic i-Rocks Rock Series K10 Gaming Keyboard, which I still regard as one of the best budget friendly gaming keyboards money can buy. Today is a special day, as it marks the second time I’ve got my hands on an i-Rocks keyboard and if it’s even half as good as the first one, we should be in for a real treat.

“The i-Rocks K50E uses a unique Scissor-Structure that combines two pairs of parallel arms and a high key stroke of 3.8mm to provide a comfortable typing experience. Thanks to the new keycap design and Scissor-Structure, the force needed and the noise produced per key press are lowered which in turn increases the speed and amount of accurate inputs during battle. The membrane base has a lifecycle of up to 30 million presses making this keyboard durable for every type of gamer.”

Equipped with a new keycap design, scissor switches, which are regarded as a step up from membrane and a different take on mechanical style switches, LED lighting, anti-ghosting and more, the K50E is certainly well equipped, so let’s get right to it and take a close look at what this new keyboard has to offer.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Intel NUC5i7RYH With Iris Pro Graphics Mini-PC Review

The low-power characteristics of Broadwell simply make it well suited to the tight spaces and constrained thermal envelopes of small form factor systems. But another side benefit of Broadwell is that it also allows manufacturers to cram higher performing parts into the same (or smaller) spaces than previous-gen, Haswell-based parts.

Take the Intel NUC5i7RYH we’re going to show you here, for example. This mini-PC is packing a Core i7-5557U processor with Iris Pro graphics, which makes it the most powerful NUC released to date. Check out the full list of specifications below and then we’ll dive a little deeper on the pages ahead...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Is Windows 10 Free? Yes, and No. An Explainer

Microsoft is set to release Windows 10 later this year and users of current versions of the operating system will get an upgrade free of charge. So where's the confusion? There has been speculation about who gets the free upgrade and who doesn't. Here's a brief overview of the different upgrade paths to Windows 10.

Read full article @ Techspot

Kubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet - Loading ... 99%

I've written a long, thorough, mixed review of Kubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet 64-bit edition with the Plasma desktop, covering live session, installation in a multi-boot setup with Windows 8, 10 and several Linux distributions on a laptop with UEFI, GPT and Secure Boot, including look & feel, partitioning, slideshow, package management & updates, default and extra applications, multimedia support - Flash, MP3, HD video, desktop effects, smartphone support, hardware compatibility, webcam, suspend & resume, resource usage, performance, printing, battery life, overall impression, tons of small and large bugs and issues, and more. Enjoy.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

OCZ Vector 180 480GB Solid State Drive Review

OCZ has sent us their latest 2.5-inch solid state drive, the Vector 180. This new drive still uses the aging Barefoot 3 controller, but OCZ has teamed it with the latest Toshiba A19nm MLC NAND. This drive is all about reliability and features OCZ’s implementation of power loss protection, which they are calling Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+). PFM+ is not full power loss protection, but will protect data-at-rest. So PFM+ will protect data that has been already been written to the NAND. This helps protect the mapping table and reduces the risk of ‘bricking’ the drive. The 480GB version of the drive that we are reviewing today has sequential read and write speeds of 550 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively. OCZ also backs this drive with their new ShieldPlus 5-year warranty. Let’s take a look!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Patriot Ignite M2 480 GB

So a lot of people might not know it but the new M.2 SSDs are actually very versatile. You can run them as a direct PCIe drive with a x2 or x4 connection or you can even run a standard SATA drive on M.2. It wasn’t long ago that I took a look at the Patriot Ignite SSD, well it just so happens Patriot send over another Ignite SSD. This time they sent over their brand new Ignite M2. The Ignite M2 is a SATA based M.2 drive. In other words with this being a SATA drive we still work under the limitations of the SATA interface but with that we keep costs down. Where this comes in handy is in builds where not having to run a 2.5 inch drive is best. So we know this is up my alley, not having to pack in a 2.5 inch drive would save a lot of trouble in some of our LANrigs! So let’s see what the Ignite M2 is all about and then run it through our standard benchmark suite.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

PC Specialist Vulcan 440 Review

UK system integrator's £1,500 gaming rig put to the test. PC Specialist has updated its range of gaming rigs with the introduction of a high-end model dubbed the Vulcan 440. Designed to be a "go-to gaming system for a great price," the new machine arrives at £1,499 and touts many of today's top-tier components in a pre-built package primed and ready for deep-pocketed enthusiasts.

Not a small amount to pay by any means, but if you don't want to cut any corners, PC Specialist reckons this is the ideal PC for high-quality gaming at extreme resolutions up to and including 4K UHD.

Read full article @ Hexus

Silence is golden: 24 silent cases, reviewed

Not so long ago, you only had a handful of options if you were looking for a silent case. Luckily, things have changed in 2015. Hardware.Info tested no less than 20 silent cases for this review, and compared them to four of the classics. Which case strikes the perfect balance between quiet and cool?

Silent cases are by definition a compromise, as cooling performance is less important than preventing noise from escaping. Cases that come equipped with acoustic foams and sport relatively few openings through which air (and noise) can escape the enclosure can become especially toasty.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Synology DiskStation DS2015xs Review

Today we have the second most expensive Synology DiskStation on hand, the DS2015xs. Powered by an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-514 quad-core SoC, we are keen to see how well the DS2015xs performs. Out of the box the DS2015xs can handle eight hard drives, giving it a maximum capacity of 48TB, while the addition of the DX1215 expansion unit boosts capacity to a whopping 120TB.

As it stands there really isn’t anything quite like the Synology DS2015xs available right now. The only cheaper alternatives that we know of include the Netgear ReadyNAS 516 at $1050 and the Qnap TVS-863 at $1180. While both are 10GbE ready, neither actually come with support out of the box, forcing consumers to shell out more on an adapter card which start at around $300. So if you are after a powerful NAS that can support vast amounts of storage along with 10GbE support for unbeatable performance, then the DS2015xs will fit the bill perfectly.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

The making of Damagebox 2015

I've built myself a fast, quiet, and stately new PC out of all-new components. Come have a look at Damagebox 2015.

Read full article @ The Tech Report