Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

Antec GX500
ASUS A88X-Pro FM2+ Motherboard Review
ASUS Maximus VII Gene Review
BenQ RL2460HT 24" Gaming Monitor Review
CyberPower Achilles Pro System review (i5 4690/GTX780)
GPU Charts - 1080p, 1440p, 4K - Updated nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless AC Router Review
Logitech G502 Proteus Core
MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Motherboard Review
Noctua NH-U9B SE2 CPU Cooler Review
NVIDIA On Ubuntu 14.04 Has Some New Advantages Over Windows 8.1
Plextor M6S SSD Review
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Performance Preview
Radeon R9 290X vs. Radeon R9 280X CrossFire
Red Faction: Armageddon 3 Years-Later Review
V3 Components Voltair TEC CPU Cooler Review
Zotac Zbox Sphere OI520 Plus Review

Antec GX500

The Antec GX500 aims to mix things up in the entry level market, offering three fans and fan controllers right out of the box, it jumps into the fight with its fists flying. Do those inclusions come at a sacrifice in quality, or will the GX500 be able to come out on top as the featherweight champion?

Read full article @ techPowerUp

ASUS A88X-Pro FM2+ Motherboard Review

Stability and reliability when overclocking wins over straight-up value, especially when you have to contend with AMD drivers, which is enough headache as it is by themselves so in the end, the ASUS A88X-Pro earns the Modders-Inc Must Have award.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

ASUS Maximus VII Gene Review

With the Maximus VII Gene, ASUS shows their next generation mATX gaming and overclocking motherboard, which is based on Intels upcoming Z97 chipset. Like it's predecessor this board wants to convince with a balanced feature mix that pleases overclockers as well as gamers. At this point we're very curious what ASUS has come up with regarding layout, design and obviously features.

Read full article @ ocaholic

BenQ RL2460HT 24" Gaming Monitor Review

The all new $288 BenQ RL2460HT isn’t your average 1080P monitor, not is it meant for the average consumer. Rather than take the usual 'everyman' approach where a monitor's design is meant to appeal to as broad a consumer base as possible the BenQ RL2460HT has been designed with laser-like intensity towards satisfying the needs of budget-focused PC gamers.

There’s a distinction to make between a typical gamer and someone who needs the absolute best gear money can buy. While BenQ turned to demanding professional gamers when designing their newest purpose-built monitor, its ultimate audience doesn’t have thousands to spend on a PC / display upgrade. So the RL2460HT may be classified as a “gaming” class product but it doesn’t have an extreme premium attached to it.

BenQ didn’t just want to throw a bunch of features at the wall to see what stuck with the RL2460HT’s intended market. So what did they create? A low lag, ultra quick panel that may not support some of the more advanced technologies like G-SYNC and 3D Vision but it still offers plenty of features to enhance the overall gameplay experience.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

CyberPower Achilles Pro System review (i5 4690/GTX780)

Today we look at a new rig from system builder Cyberpower. The Achilles Pro incorporates the latest Intel i5 4690 processor, alongside a Gigabyte GTX780, Gigabyte Z97 Gaming motherboard and a 256GB Plextor PCIe SSD. Cyberpower have decided to adopt the exciting new In-Win 904 case as well in this £1,399 build. Is it worth the money?

Read full article @ KitGuru

GPU Charts - 1080p, 1440p, 4K - Updated nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN

With these chart lists we're publishing benchmark results from recent graphics cards with three different resolutions: FullHD, 1440p and UltraHD. In all cases we've set details to maximum and we're listing minimum framerates as well as maximum framerates. Other than that we will be updating and expanding these charts on a regular basis.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless AC Router Review

With their latest router Linksys are looking to push the wireless-ac market forward while also reaching back into the past for some design ideas. Today we take a look at their WRT1900AC router and find out how those two aspects mix.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

Logitech G502 Proteus Core

A good portion of Logitech’s most recent product introductions have really just been refreshes of old products. The G602 wireless mouse was really the only fully new design to come from Logitech in a few years up until very recently. Not too long before I went on vacation Logitech introduced their newest mouse the G502 Proteus Core. Not only is the G502 a completely new product, but it is also the only Logitech Gaming product to also include a name beyond their standard G naming scheme. That must mean that the G502 is something special to them and they really wanted it to stand out. Today I am going to take a look at the G502 Proteus Core to see what it’s all about and find out if it is worth getting excited about, let’s dig in.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Motherboard Review

The MSI A88X-G45 Gaming is a handsome AMD A88X motherboard that sports a long list of features including triple graphics slots. That explains the ‘Gaming’ part of the name and as you would expect the A88X chipset means this MSI board supports the latest FM2+ range of Kaveri APU.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Noctua NH-U9B SE2 CPU Cooler Review

Today we are checking out a CPU Cooler from Noctua that has been out for a while now, but is definitely worth covering as its size lends itself to smaller form factor builds and HTPC setups. The NH-U9B SE2 is still going to offer great cooling performance as it is built around Noctua’s award winning NH-U9B heatsink and comes with two Noctua premium-grade NF-B9 cooling fans. On top of that the NH-U9B SE2 comes with Noctua’s SecuFirm2 mounting system, making it quite easy to install this cooler on pretty much any motherboard. If that is not enough Noctua has backed this cooler with a 6 year warranty! Let’s take a closer look at the Noctua NH-U9B SE2.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

NVIDIA On Ubuntu 14.04 Has Some New Advantages Over Windows 8.1

At the request of many Phoronix readers here are the updated benchmarks comparing the performance of several NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards under Ubuntu 14.04 Linux to Windows 8.1 with all of the latest updates for each operating system. While the NVIDIA graphics driver code-base is largely shared between platforms, many Linux gamers will be pleased to note that the Linux performance has begun advancing beyond the frame-rates offered under Microsoft Windows.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Plextor M6S SSD Review

We review the Plextor M6S SSD. Plextor recently released this new addition to their SSD lineup. The series is to compete with Samsung and Crucial mostly, in both price and performance. The end result is a very capable and fast SSD that can keep up with the competitive guns in the market, yet remains attractively priced.

The NAND flash storage solutions market is tough. Basically all manufacturers have placed products on the market that are SATA3 compatible. And with that interface reaching its limits, many of these manufacturers run into that very same limitation making all these guys perform really close to each other. For the consumer that is great as your main focus does not have to be the SSD performance that much anymore. No you focus should be reliability, endurance and obviously price. So, with the arrival of new 20nm NAND Flash based M6S SSDs, this series is aimed at high-end class consumers. The new M6S SSDs debut in storage capacities of 128, 256 and 512 GB. The series will be based on a Marvell 88SS9187 controller tied to a DRAM cache and Toshiba NAND flash memory. That last one is the bigger change, the transition of opting newer NAND flash memory which is now 20nm MLC NAND.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Performance Preview

Last year Qualcomm announced a new tier in its high end SoC roadmap with the Snapdragon 805. Priced somewhat above the current Snapdragon 800/801, the 805 would be the last 32-bit high-end SoC from Qualcomm. It would be the grand finale in Krait's lineage, which started back in 2012 with Krait 200 and MSM8960 and saw iterative improvements over the years. The Snapdragon 805 was not only designed to drive CPU performance higher but also be the launch vehicle for Qualcomm's brand new Adreno 4xx GPU architecture.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Radeon R9 290X vs. Radeon R9 280X CrossFire

Comparisons of two mid-range (roughly) graphics cards with one high-end VGA are almost always good for some really interesting results. Today we're having a look at what two AMD Radeon R9 280X graphics cards can do against one Radeon R9 290X. If you keep in mind, that the two R9 280X cards are just a little more expensive than one R9 290X then things could be quite interesting.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Red Faction: Armageddon 3 Years-Later Review

Is it worth returning to Mars with Red Faction: Armageddon? In my opinion it definitely is. The game looks good, runs great, and is just a fun experience. It empowers you to cause as much destruction as you want, but also allows you to rebuild afterward. It takes many of the mechanics of the franchise and raises them to a new and enjoyable level. I mentioned in the introduction how it has an interesting place in the franchise, and now I will explain what I meant by that. I can remember when Red Faction: Armageddon first came out how a lot of people panned it and dismissed it for one reason in particular. It is not a sequel to Red Faction: Guerrilla. After that game, many were expecting another open-world, sandbox experience, and instead we received a very linear shooter. While I can understand the disappointment many felt, this game is still a fun and enjoyable member of the Red Faction franchise, and one worth playing.

Read full article @ OCC

V3 Components Voltair TEC CPU Cooler Review

We have taken a look at many different types and brands of CPU coolers over the years, with each manufacturer coming up with their own unique way to control the massive amounts of heat your CPU can throw off. A new company, called V3 Components, wants to start off by introducing a cooler with little used technology called Thermoelectric Cooling (TEC) – We’ll get more into the specifics on that in a bit. Basically what V3 is targeting is your liquid CPU coolers, stating that this cooler should be as good as or better than the AIO liquid cooling kits on the market today; not to mention safer due to no liquid...

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Zotac Zbox Sphere OI520 Plus Review

Zotac's orb-shaped Zbox reviewed and rated. Zotac has been teasing the Zbox Sphere since the turn of the year, but only now, almost six months after the initial unveiling, is the product ready to make its way to retail shelves.

Shaped to look a lot like Google's Nexus Q and outfitted with hardware not too dissimilar to Intel's NUC, the Sphere takes low-power PC hardware and packages it in an attractive, orb-shaped case.

Read full article @ Hexus