Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

BitFenix Pandora ATX Case Review
Gigabyte X99P-SLI Motherboard Review
Microsoft Lumia 650 review: Sleek looks, low price
MP4Nation Brainwavz HM5 Headphones
MSI GT80S 6QF Titan SLI Review
Mythlogic Deimos 1615S Gaming Laptop Review
Netgear ReadyNAS 214: 4-bay with a quad-core
Tom Clancy's The Division graphics card performance Review
Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Review
Zotac Premium Edition SSD Review (480GB)

BitFenix Pandora ATX Case Review

BitFenix is a company who we all know for their Prodigy line of small form factor cases. Since then BitFenix has launched quite a few different cases. The original BitFenix Pandora was released back in 2014 and was a huge success. It had a nice slim elegant design and curved panels. The case was a micro-ATX case so if you wanted to install a full-size system inside you were out of luck. Well two years later with the success of the original Pandora we now have the Pandora ATX which is a larger version that now supports ATX motherboards. Not only does that case supportATX motherboards but you have room inside for a 360 mm radiator either in the top or front, long graphics cards up to 440 mm in length, power supplies up to 220 mm in length and a large side panel window to show off all of your hardware. Let’s get into the Pandora and see what it is all about!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Gigabyte X99P-SLI Motherboard Review

With the LGA 1151 / Z170 spectacle starting to finally settle down, enthusiasts are once again looking towards the professional orientated X99 and socket 2011-v3 to fulfill their needs. Whether it is the massive quad channel DDR4 memory bus, the higher core count, the higher PCI-E lane count, or some combination thereof the venerable X99 and 2011-v3 combination still has a lot going for it. One area that it was obviously starting to lag in however was in the value department.

This is partly because X99 motherboards are geared more towards workstation and professionals where the upfront costs are amortized over a longer lifecycle, but mainly due to the fact Z170 motherboard manufactures have entered a new arms race. They’re now including everything but the kitchen sink just to stay relevant. Features once reserved for X99 motherboards such as DDR4 instead of DDR3 support, Intel NICs, four lance PCI-E M.2 ports are all now standard on mass market Z170 motherboards. This does tend to make the arguably superior – but older – LGA21011-v3 and X99 based motherboards a tougher sell.

Let’s be honest for a moment; the Skylake platform is actually quite expensive once you start looking at the cost of an overclockable processor and suitably feature-rich motherboard to accompany it. X99 on the other hand boasts slightly older processors and mobos from the Haswell-E lineup are still costly things are starting to change.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Microsoft Lumia 650 review: Sleek looks, low price

The newest phone from Microsoft is the best looking Lumia in a long time, with an attractive price to match. The Quick take The Lumia 650 is a step forward in terms of design refinements, but it doesn't leap so far ahead on the inside as some might hope compared to its predecessor. This phone is very much an incremental iteration. If you want a well put together phone, for £160 the Lumia 650 is certainly attractive. While the software still has many quirks (or bugs, depending on your outlook), and while there's nothing to knock your socks off aside from the outward style, it's a solid phone at a solid price....

Read full article @ Windows Central

MP4Nation Brainwavz HM5 Headphones

The Brainwavz HM5 has been around for a while, but its rugged design and good all-around performance still make it one of the most recommended sub-$150 closed-back circum-aural headphones around. The design is far from basic and even features user-replaceable cables. Priced at just $129.50, you still get a long and short cable, a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter, and a set of spare pads. It even comes in a handy carrying case.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

MSI GT80S 6QF Titan SLI Review

Want an insanely fast laptop? Got £4,000 to spend? Say hello to MSI's latest 18.4in beastie.

Read full article @ Hexus

Mythlogic Deimos 1615S Gaming Laptop Review

While discussions about the best desktop gaming PCs tend to be divided between do-it-yourselfers and fans of pre-built PCs, gaming laptops spark a different debate, typically between large system builders versus, smaller boutique system integrators. Many of the industry behemoths kick-started or bolstered their gaming system lines by acquiring boutique SIs (think of Voodoo, which was swallowed by HP, and Alienware, which is now a part of Dell), but some niche builders are still going solo, including well-known players like Falcon Northwest and Maingear. Mythlogic is another custom builder providing an alternative to mainstream brands, and we're going to show you one of their machines here -- the powerful Deimos 1615S...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Netgear ReadyNAS 214: 4-bay with a quad-core

It has been a while since we singly discussed a Netgear NAS. This time we are taking a look at the ReadyNAS 214, a model which supports up to four drives, based on a quad-core processor from Annapurna.

The design of the ReadyNAS is a familiar one. We have seen this case before from Netgear. This is not a bad thing though, since it is a relatively sturdy case with a compact design. Despite the support for up to four drives, it is about the same size as some other models which only support up to two drives. The case is fully made of metal which gives it a solid feel. A screwdriver is not needed to mount the hard drives in the trays.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Tom Clancy's The Division graphics card performance Review

Tom Clancy's The Division is an online open world third-person shooter role-playing video game developed and published by Ubisoft, with assistance from Red Storm Entertainment, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We take a look at The Division in our usual in-depth ways. That would be tested on the PC gaming wise relative towards graphics card performance with the latest AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers. Multiple graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked. We have a look at performance with the newest graphics cards and technologies. We test with the game based on the day-1 release all patched up combined with AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.2.1 drivers and for Nvidia their GeForce 364.47 WHQL driver.

This article will cover benchmarks in the sense of average framerates, we'll look at all popular resolutions scaling from Full HD (1920x1080/1200), WHQD (2560x1440) and of course that big-whopper of a resolution Ultra HD. UHDTV (2160p) is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.29 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as 1920x1080 (2.07 megapixels).

Read full article @ Guru3D

Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Review

Ok I'll share something with ya fellah as honestly, I did not expect to be reviewing a GeForce GTX 970 based graphics cards in the year 2016. Why you wonder? Well, two reasons really. The GeForce GTX 970 and 980 originally launched back in September 19, 2014. Yeah that's right, 2014! And up-to this moment Nvidia has nothing new to offer in this segment of the market. So is that awkward? Well, yes but for good reason. The graphics industry is in a slow slope and pace as they need to wait until 14/15/16 nm fabrication becomes viable in yields and volume production. That is estimated to start later in Q2 2016, but might run deeper into 2016 as we certainly do not know what products will be offered in the first wave either.

There's a second reason, after the GeForce GTX 970 scandal where Nvidia marketed the GeForce GTX 970 being a 4 GB one (it really uses 3.5 GB at full speed with a 0.5 GB segment cripled running at slow speed) I never figured this card to be relevant to the market again due to the negativity surrounding it. However it has gotten away with it, and sure I told you guys last year already that even at 3.5 GB (full speed) these cards are little gems whens it comes to performance. As such they are still an on-going hot selling product for Nvidia and their board partners.

So heck why not? We test the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme CORE graphics card. Housed in a dark looking design this card might just be what the doctor ordered. The card has 4 GB graphics memory (3.5 GB partition at full speed), is relatively energy efficient and factory overclocked for you. You will be surprised by how this card looks, how silent it is and how well it performs. The GPU used is the 28 nm GM204, the two derivatives created from it are the GeForce GTX 970 and 980. Ah, you noticed? Yes, correct, Nvidia decided to skip the 800 series to avoid confusion with some of their re-branded mobile parts. Maxwell is a new and sound architecture and as such it is released with a new series name. In this article we will have an extensive look at the architecture behind Maxwell, we will look at gaming performance from Full HD to Ultra HD. As mentioned, and I want to be very clear about this one more time, there was an issue exposed with the GTX 970 series; this 4 GB card runs 3.5 GB of memory at full speed, and 0.5 GB at very slow speed. For the majority of end-users this is not an issue whatsoever, but it certainly created a lot of chatter on the web. We explained this phenomenon in detail here. If you care to be bothered by it, please skip the GTX 970 and go for an alternative product. However, we feel strongly that the issue exposed doesn't matter enough to make a substantial difference if you game up-to a resolution of 2560x1440.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Zotac Premium Edition SSD Review (480GB)

Zotac has been in the computer industry since 2006 and has made quite the name for itself in the gamer market. Better known for their graphics cards, motherboards, and Mini-PCs, Zotac isn't typically a name one would associate with solid state drives, especially high-performance ones. Last year, however, they expanded their product portfolio with the release of the Zotac Premium Edition SSDs. While their name is anything but exciting, their stats are. Built with Phison's very reputable quad-core S10 controller and Toshiba's A19 MLC NAND flash, the Zotac Premium Edition SSDs promise to deliver great quality and performance, but do they have what it takes to take on the top performing giants? Read on as we find out in today's review.

Read full article @ The SSD Review