Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ADATA Premier SP550 240GB Solid State Drive Review
ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q G-SYNC Gaming Monitor: IPS At 165Hz
Beware, Microsoft plans to push Windows 10 on even more Windows 7 and 8 systems
BIOSTAR Gaming Z170X ATX Motherboard Review
EKWB Predator 240 AIO Review
How to Play Retro Games on Your Android Device
QNAP TS-451+ SOHO NAS Review
Rosewill 1,000W Bronze Review
Should You Buy a Sound Card? An Enthusiast's Perspective
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 reviewed

ADATA Premier SP550 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Over the past year ADATA has released a number of different solid state drives aimed at different market segments. Not that long ago we took a look at ADATA’s XPG SX930 which was aimed at gamers and enthusiasts. Today we will be taking a look at the Premier SP550 which sits as ADATA’s entry-level solid state drive aimed at people who are looking to upgrade to an SSD and still want very good performance. The drive features the Silicon Motion SM2256 controller matched with SK Hynix TLC NAND. This is the first time we’ve seen this combination together. The 240GB version of the drive that we are reviewing today boasts sequential read and write speeds of 560 MB/s and 510 MB/s respectively. Let’s get this drive on our test bench and see what it can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q G-SYNC Gaming Monitor: IPS At 165Hz

If you had asked us what we’d change on the ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q when we evaluated it last year, we would have said upgrading to a higher-quality IPS panel would be ideal, without sacrificing on the refresh rate. More inputs would also be welcome, as would better cable management features. A couple of those features simply weren’t feasible then, but as they say, times...they are a changing.

The brand new ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q we’ll be showing you here takes everything we liked about last year’s model and gooses things up quite a bit. This new monitor has an IPS panel and a max refresh rate of 165Hz. It also has multiple inputs and some cool new features, though it has a similar design language...

Read full article @ HotHardware.Com

Beware, Microsoft plans to push Windows 10 on even more Windows 7 and 8 systems

Microsoft wants computer systems that run Windows 7 or 8 to be upgraded to Windows 10, there is no doubt about that.

The company projected that more than one billion Windows 10 devices will be running the new operating system in the next couple of years which is an ambitious goal even if you consider that this includes mobile devices and the Xbox.

Windows 7 and 8 users who want to upgrade can do so easily, but those who don't, fight an seemingly endless battle against Windows 10 upgrade patches that prepares their systems for the upgrade.

Read full article @ gHacks

BIOSTAR Gaming Z170X ATX Motherboard Review

Depending on the specific features, there are multiple chipsets that support the Intel Socket 1151 processors, the Z170, H170 and B150. Biostar has motherboards that support all three of these chipsets, with the Z170 chipset being the main enthusiast grade chipset. For the Z170 chipset, Biostar has four motherboards the offer a range of features. Their flagship model is the Gaming Z170X and that is the board we will be reviewing today.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

EKWB Predator 240 AIO Review

What do you get when you take a custom water loop consisting of a massive radiator, an ultra high performance waterblock, low evaporative tubing, fill it with poly glycol water, and then seal the entire thing up tight? We are not sure either but EK Waterblocks calls their creation the Predator 240. This is an all in one water cooler of absolutely epic proportions, one that is meant to be head and shoulders above similar solutions from the likes of Corsair, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, NZXT and many others.

Technically speaking this CPU cooler is classified as an AIO solution, in that it is an off the shelf purchase that gives any buyer - even novices - the ability to get liquid cooled temperatures without any of the headaches (like bleeding, adding a kill coil/fungicide, or leaks) normally associated with a custom loop. However, what makes the Predator so unique is the fact that EKWB has built its reputation exclusively upon the shoulders of water cooling and they’ve leveraged that knowledge to offer a closed loop product like no other. Essentially, they’re perfectly placed to offer something that isn’t another Asetek or CoolIT knock-off.

In a nutshell the Predator 240 is a custom loop that’s been prebuilt and sealed up for convenience’s sake, though it can also be modified with future additions just like a normal custom setup. Let’s consider it a closed loop that can be opened and modified if the need arises, making it an "AIO" in name only. In either case, no matter what you call it the Predator 240 is built with enthusiasts and overclockers in mind.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

How to Play Retro Games on Your Android Device

If youre the owner of an Android device, you probably know that the platforms open nature lends itself to pursuits that just arent possible on closed platforms like iOS. This can work to your benefit. On Android, you can actually install emulators and play classic games from the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and more. Of the dozens of available emulators, the most popular are: MyBoy (GameBoy Advance) ($4.99) Drastic DS (Nintendo DS) ($5.99) Dolphin (Gamecube/Wii) (Free) ClassicBoy (NES, SNES, N64, PS1, and more) (Free) All of the above are on the Play Store.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

QNAP TS-451+ SOHO NAS Review

QNAP is one of the leading vendors in the COTS NAS (commercial off-the-shelf network attached storage) space. They have a wide variety of hardware platforms to choose from, ranging from ARM-based single-bay systems to Xeon-based rackmounts. Earlier this week, they launched the Bay Trail-based TS-x51+ series for home and SOHO users. We have the 4-bay variant, the TS-451+ in for review. Read on to see how the unit stacks up against the competitors in this space.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Rosewill 1,000W Bronze Review

Mixes high capacity with an aggressive price. It makes sense for huge computing etailers to invest resources for in-house brands. Following the lead by supermarkets, who retail their own-brand wares that are often an excellent alternative for the bigger names that need to invest in advertising and promotions, in-house products can be cheaper and just as good.

Just ask US retailing giant Newegg. The buying power from yearly revenues exceeding $2.5bn enables it to go straight to Chinese manufacturers who built thousands of products that come together under the Rosewill brand. Want a mouse, chassis, PSU, keyboard, fan, or even audio wire? Rosewill has you covered. We wouldn't be surprised if the proverbial kitchen sink was next.

Rosewill is now expanding outside of Newegg and into territories new, including the UK. Promising lots of value backed by solid engineering, we're today taking a look at the Rosewill Bronze 1,000W PSU, available this side of the pond for under £100.

Read full article @ Hexus

Should You Buy a Sound Card? An Enthusiast's Perspective

There's no clear-cut metric to use as a guideline if you're shopping for a sound card. Lengthy audiophile reviews are available, but they generally don't offer a quantifiable takeaway if you have a limited point of reference and don't know much about the subject to begin with. I fall into that category.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 reviewed

Xiaomi’s second-generation Redmi Note was released a couple of months ago, and it started shipping just weeks ago, but you still can’t buy it directly if you happen to live in the west. Are Europeans and Americans missing out? Yep, they surely are. 

It could be argued that Xiaomi drove the value phablet craze to new heights with the original Redmi Note, and with the Redmi Note 2 it’s raising the bar a tad higher. The company has tried to develop a competitive product that would best the competition in just about every aspect, and it did a good job. 
The Redmi Note is based on MediaTek’s Helio X10 processor and it’s available in two versions. The standard version comes with a 2GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, while the “Prime” model comes with 32GB of on-board storage and a 2.2GHz processor.

Read full article @ Fudzilla