Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

Acer Liquid Jade S Smartphone Review
Aorus X5 Review
Asus TUF Sabertooth X99, Military Tough
Be Quiet Silent Base 800 Case Review
Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition Chassis Review
Fractal Design's Define S case reviewed
G.Skill Ripjaws4 F4-3000C15Q-16GRBB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming Review
HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Review
Intel IDF 2015 to take place on August 18th
Microsoft Introduces A 128GB Version Of The Core i7 Surface Pro 3
Microsoft might be interested in buying AMD, according to source
Mlais M7 review: Lots of Lollipop on a budget
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming OC Review
MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G Review
PowerColor PCS+ R9 380
Samsung Galaxy A3 Review
Sapphire R9 390X Tri-X 8GB Review
SilverStone Fortress FT04 Case Review
XFX R9 290X Black OC Edition CrossFire Video Card Review

Acer Liquid Jade S Smartphone Review

A little while ago we had a look at the Acer Liquid Jade – the first device in Acer’s Liquid Jade smartphone range. Today we are looking at the Liquid Jade S, the successor to the original Liquid Jade. With a new octa-core processor, and higher RRP to match, is it worth the additional investment?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Aorus X5 Review

The Aorus X5 should have no business being this powerful while being so light and thin. At just 22.9mm, or under an inch thick, the X5 has a pair of Nvidia GTX 965M chips hiding within its aluminum chassis, along with a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) and a 1TB hard disk drive (HDD).There's no question that this is a hardcore gaming machine, either. The Aorus X5 has a ton of gaming-specific features beyond just its powerful graphics capabilities and 2,880 x 1,620 15.6-inch screen. On the far right of the full-sized keyboard are five programmable macro keys. There's even the option to add a dedicated hardware encoder, which takes the strain of livestreaming and recording gameplay off of the CPU.As far as its contemporaries, the Aorus X5 is on par with the Razer Blade 2015 regarding the total package.

Read full article @ Techradar

Asus TUF Sabertooth X99, Military Tough

The Asus Sabertooth line are built for toughness, reliability and thermal protection. Asus uses a battery of Military grade certification tests to ensure that their Sabertooth lineup will stand up to the toughest environments. Cased in steel from the bottom and resilient plastic shielding from the top the Asus Sabertooth is easily the heaviest board we’ve ever laid eyes on. Packed with a 5 year warranty and Asus’s Sabertooth toughness our lab smack in the center of the Sonoran Desert is the perfect place to test the board. Will the Sabertooth Roar or crawl away meowing like a kitten?

Read full article @ Bjorn3D

Be Quiet Silent Base 800 Case Review

Be quiet! has been a favorite brand around the labs for some time. Their focus on premium case cooling has produced some of the best heat sinks and fans on the market today. Now be quiet! is branching out into case design with their Silent Base 800 case. The Silent Base 800 is designed to offer the quiet operation we have come to expect with enthusiast performance.

The Silent Base 800 will be the first in a planned series of cases from be quiet! and has been in development for some time. Let’s face it. With a name that already says “quiet” there is more of an expectation than most cases face. Fortunately the Silent Base 800 embraces the legacy in an attractive Mid-case package.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition Chassis Review

PC Chassis come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, styles, price ranges, and with just about anything you may need. Much of it depends on what you want out of the case and what you want to spend on a case. Features should be price dependent, but quality shouldn’t be. Today Legit Reviews has the opportunity to look at a new case from Corsair, the Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition. The Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition is a very budget friendly case retailing for only $59.99! The Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Edition is also available in a little less silent version for around only $49.99.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Fractal Design's Define S case reviewed

Fractal Design's Define S maintains the understated styling of the company's other Define cases, but its businesslike exterior hides a radical new take on what a mid-tower case should look like on the inside. We ran this case through our testing gauntlet to see how it measures up.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

G.Skill Ripjaws4 F4-3000C15Q-16GRBB

If you're into the latest tech, DDR4 is in your sights, and G.Skill is here on these pages yet again with another Ripjaws4 kit, its timings 15-16-16-35 at a blazing 3000 MHz. Great-looking, the F4-3000C15Q-16GRBB quad-channel kit is affordable, fast, and clad in blue.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming Review

Unleashing fury at 4K. The battle for the high-end graphics-card market has hotted up just recently. First came Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan X followed by GTX 980 Ti earlier this month. The reason for the GTX 980 Ti's arrival was simple: to pre-empt the AMD Fury X card from stealing the limelight. Said Fury X has now been through the benchmark wringer and has performed at a level just below the standard GTX 980 Ti, according to our extensive results.

Nvidia knows that AMD's partners are not allowed to design their own Fury X boards, thus limiting overclocking potential, which is reasonably mediocre on review card, so it wants its own cohort of partners to push their super-clocked GTX 980 Ti versions all the more. We've already seen EVGA and Zotac is action, with both cards performing suitably speedily in the high-resolution benchmarks, but it's now the turn of Gigabyte and its G1 Gaming card sporting a revised livery.

Read full article @ Hexus

HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Review

HP’s business convertible offers first-rate performance to those who can afford it. A combination of superb hardware and practical software makes the HP Elite x2 1011 G1 one of the best choices for enterprise-focused convertibles, but this premium product comes with a premium price that will leave many looking elsewhere.

Pros:
Good processor and performance, Power Keyboard gives long battery life, useful security and BYOD software included

Cons:
Tablet is a little too reliant on the keyboard, low quality cameras, very expensive

Read full article @ V3

Intel IDF 2015 to take place on August 18th

It is now official, as Intel finally announced that instead of hosting this year's IDF in the second week of September like many years before, it will hold its biggest event between August 18th and 20th. There was one huge problem with the second week of September timing. What happened a few times in the last few years is that Apple had its keynote almost at the exact same time as Intel. Apple usually holds its iPhone event in the second week or September. 
Key members of the press would have to choose which one to addend, in case that they were on Apple love list. The second reason we hear is that Skylake, second generation 14nm core is ready to launch. Intel wants to make a big splashy announcement at its biggest event. CEO Bryan Krzanich is expected to hold a day one presentation and show Skylake in action, as well as the successor, probably called Cannon Lake, a new 10nm part. 

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Microsoft Introduces A 128GB Version Of The Core i7 Surface Pro 3

This weekend Microsoft introduced a new model of the Surface Pro 3. Like the existing two Core i7 models, this new version uses Intels Core i7-4650U CPU. At $1299 in the United States, the new model is significantly cheaper than the next Core i7 model, which starts at $1549. In fact, its the same price as the high end version of the existing Core i5 model. With this new introduction, the Surface Pro 3 lineup is now as follows.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Microsoft might be interested in buying AMD, according to source

In a bid to revive its chip design operations, Microsoft Corp. may acquire Advanced Micro Devices, according to a source familiar with the matter. The software giant approached AMD several months ago, the source indicated. The result of the talks is unclear.

Microsoft Corp. has been selling game consoles for over ten years now and back in 2006 the firm even formed a division to design chips for its products, primarily game consoles. While this internal group has clearly developed some chips for Microsoft’s hardware, the company used chips designed by Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp. for its Xbox One consoles and Zune players, respectively. As it appears, Microsoft’s own chip design team cannot really develop competitive solutions for the company’s devices and in order to make its chip operations viable.

Read full article @ Kitguru

Mlais M7 review: Lots of Lollipop on a budget

In case you kept track of smartphone trends in Asia this year, the spec should not surprise you. The phone is based on a MTK6752 processor with eight 64-bit Cortex-A53 CPU cores and Mali T760 graphics. The 5.5-inch panel is a 720p unit, so the SoC does not have to work too hard to keep everything smooth. The addition of 3GB of RAM should help as well, not to mention LTE connectivity. A fingerprint sensor is on board as well, right next to the Sony 13-megapixel camera.

Mlais is a very young Hong Kong smartphone outfit. The export brand launched on Christmas, but it already has a number of competitively priced smartphones. As part of our ongoing coverage of commoditised Android, we had a chance to test the Mlais M4 Note and Mlais M52. While these two models were “inspired by” the Xiaomi Redmi Note and Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the new Mlais M7 tries to be original – it’s not a clone and it takes its design cues from a range of different products.
The end result is a sleek phone with a good tactile feeling. Despite the low price, the Mlais M7 feels robust and the choice of materials doesn’t leave room for complaints. You get a stainless steel frame and matte, rubberized plastic on the back.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming OC Review

In this review we benchmark the new MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming (OC edition), a really good product with totally silent, awesome cooling. It comes factory overclocked, and combined with the default variables like the 6 GB graphics memory, this product just breathes gaming performance that seems awe-inspiring.

The GPU that resides on under the hood is big Maxwell, and oh man it's a freak of nature with that kind of game rendering powah! You'd expect a product with '980' in it to have a similar slightly tweaked GPU, but no Sir. Nvidia shifted a thing or two around, the 980 Ti is based on the BIG Maxwell GPU, the same GPU that is powering the Titan X. Obviously the product has been trimmed down a tiny bit, but trust us when we say, there's plenty performance to be found. This product comes with a luxurious six Gigabytes of graphics memory and with these specs, the GTX 980 Ti should be fetching a lot of interest for the true gamers among us. The GPU empowering the GeForce 980 Ti is big, this one has a massive transistor count; it is a slightly revised GM200 A1 GPU that currently feeds the Titan X its horsepower. So yes, a slightly different iteration of the GM200. The card has five display outputs: three DisplayPorts, HDMI and DVI-I. Where the GTX 980 has 4 GB, this product has a nice 6 GB frame buffer, and close to a third more shader processors when compared to the GeForce 980, accumulating up-to 2816 of them playing the binary game in a GPU that has a whopping 8 Billion transistors (GeForce GTX 980 has 5 Billion). The card looks pretty identical to previous models with subtle changes here and there and with that familiar cooler shroud. Memory wise NVIDIA equipped its GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 7 Gbps memory, the fastest GDDR5 memory you can find on a graphics card today, that's until HBM (stacked memory) is released by the competition in the near future. Combined with GPU Boost 2.0 you will see this product is advertised in the 1076 MHz range on its dynamic clock for the reference products. The reference base clock for 980 Ti is 1 GHz. It's not that the card can't go any higher, but it is done to keep the product in line power consumption wise. With a 250W TDP, we are not complaining at all, no Sir. For the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, monitor outputs include DVI, HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort, this will vary a little with board partner products that are bound to get released after Computex, based on their own design and cooling. With a card like the MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti gaming you will be able to play the hottest games including the Witcher 3 and Grand Theft Auto V at that whopping Ultra HD 8.2 Mpixels at a 3840x2160 resolution with a single card, in fact we are going to check that out in this review. The maximum allowed board design power draw is roughly 250 Watts, not bad considering the caliber of this product.

Read full article @ Guru3D

MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G Review

Today we’re looking at the first of AMD’s 300-series cards. We were looking for something with a bit more of a splash with R9 300 cards, and while AMD has moved in that direction with the Fury cards, the others occupy somewhat more familiar territory. The reason for this, surprise, is that most of the 300 series cards feature tweaks and updates to what we saw with the last of the 200 series lineup.

That said, we know that many gamers, if not most, simply cannot afford to keep the latest high-end hardware in their system. So for most of the marketplace, finding a sweet spot of a gaming card that comes in around the $200 – $250 range is the key, as it should provide suitable performance for most needs without breaking the bank. And that is indeed where the R9 380 comes into play.

More specifically, we’re looking at the MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G, a card that boasts a custom heatsink, improved power design, and a factory overclock, all for a modest premium of only an extra $25. Sounds pretty good so far. Factor in that AMD is bringing a few new features to the market with the R9 300 series launch, and we’re cautiously optimistic for strong gaming value.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

PowerColor PCS+ R9 380

So last week we had our first peak at the kind of new R9 380. Well it just so happens that card was only a 2GB model. Lucky for us PowerColor sent over their PCS+ R9 380 and it has a 4GB frame buffer. So today I’m going to check out the card from PowerColor and see what they have going on and along with that we can see if having the additional frame buffer is worth it in our benchmark suite. With these cards not exactly being focused towards higher resolution gameplay I’m not sure if we will see too much at 1080p but given the 1440p numbers we saw before I bet we see some improvement there!

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Samsung Galaxy A3 Review

Last year's Galaxy Alpha and Note 4 signified the beginning of the end for all plastic, high-end Samsung smartphones. While the inclusion of a metal frame on both devices was certainly welcome, the Korean firm wasn't ready to forgo its beloved plastic entirely. With the more affordable A Series, Samsung has bowed to consumer pressure, opting for a metal unibody design, waving goodbye to the company's signature removable rear cover and battery. Being the least expensive of Samsung's new mid-range line-up, it's unsurprising that the Galaxy A3 is neither the most powerful nor the most feature-rich smartphone on the market. Yet it aims to offer consumers a viable compact option, with build quality comparable to handsets costing twice as much. And Samsung's reputation as a manufacturer is another point in the A3's favour.

Read full article @ Techradar

Sapphire R9 390X Tri-X 8GB Review

Today we take a look at one of the latest graphics cards from Sapphire – the new R9 390X featuring the latest version of their Tri-X cooling system. This top level graphics card ships in an overclocked state and features a custom triple cooler – shipping with 3x 90mm dual ball bearing fans. This card is designed to target the 4K market – priced at £359.99 inc vat (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-361-SP) in the UK.

Read full article @ KitGuru

SilverStone Fortress FT04 Case Review

Most of the cases that I have seen and reviewed this year have usually been what I personally refer to as cookie cutter cases. Meaning that most are generally all alike in build placement and engineering except for one or two exceptions that make that particular case unique, but the Silverstone FT04 is a case that defies this rule of case making. The Silverstone FT04 still has to follow the usual JEDEC Rules for conformity to the E-ATX form factor but past that is where it all changes to pure uniqueness. This Silverstone case defies most of the usual configuration standards and sets itself apart as being a “Case all its own”.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

XFX R9 290X Black OC Edition CrossFire Video Card Review

Today we review two XFX R9 290X Black OC Edition video cards in CrossFire to see what quality 4K gaming we can achieve. We will be comparing this to a SLI GeForce GTX 970 configuration, in hopes of clearly defining the better overall value in this high-end gaming category. All for $699.98 after $60 MIR.

XFX is a well known company among PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts. It is a division of PINE Technology Holdings Limited. The XFX manufacturing branch specializes in high-performance PC hardware with a focus on gaming products including AMD and NVIDIA graphics processing units and motherboards.

On our test bench today is the XFX R9 290X Black OC Edition. We will be running two of these in a CrossFire configuration.

Read full article @ HardOCP