Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

103 12cm case fans Review
6-Way Winter 2014 Linux Distribution Comparison
AMD FX-9590 AM3+ Processor Performance Review
Asus A88X-Gamer Motherboard Review
Cooler Master Storm Mizar Review
Edifier Tick Tock Bluetooth Review
Huawei Honor 6 Review
Inateck Bluetooth 3.0 ultra slim keyboard Review
Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 Tool-Less 2.5" HDD Enclosure Review
Nvidia Shield Tablet review: Great gaming, great price, terrible battery
OCZ ARC 100 240GB Solid State Drive Review
OCZ challenge KitGuru to kill 5x ARC 100 SSD drives
PC Buyers Guide Winter 2014
Samsung UE48H6500 Review
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO CPU Cooler Review
XFX Radeon R9 290 Double Dissipation Edition Review

103 12cm case fans Review

You have an unbelievable amount of choice if you're looking for a case fan. In order to begin creating order out of chaos, we have tested no less than 103 12cm fans, using a completely revamped test method.

The humble case fan may very well be the simplest component of your PC: the component's sole purpose is to blow air from one side to the other, and preferably as much air as possible while producing as little noise as possible. Because it is essentially only these two aspects that matter, one might conclude that choosing the right case fan would be fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, things aren't quite as simple in practice. First, manufacturers will often times engage in creative accounting: the specified values for the amount of air that can be moved (the airflow) and the noise production will typically be determined in a rather creative fashion. Second, a case fan that under normal circumstances would offer a lot of airflow might disappoint after being attached to a radiator or a CPU heat sink, a phenomenon that has to do with static pressure. Third, different case fans may use different types of bearings, with lower quality bearings having a negative influence on the fan's life expectancy. And fourth, when using a high-end PC case with a window, the looks of the case fans are important as well.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

6-Way Winter 2014 Linux Distribution Comparison

With this week's launch of Fedora 21, here's a performance comparison of the new Fedora Linux release compared to the Arch-based Antergos rolling-release distribution, Debian GNU/Linux Jessie, openSUSE Tumbleweed, CentOS Linux 7, and Ubuntu 14.10.

Read full article @ Phoronix

AMD FX-9590 AM3+ Processor Performance Review

The newest installment of AMD FX CPUs is finally upon us. September 2014 marked the release of the a few new FX CPUs, including the FX-8370, the FX-8370E, and the FX-8320E. One of the side-effects of AMD’s release is a price drop in their existing CPUs, including the flagship FX-9590 CPU. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at the CPU that sits atop the FX line, the AMD FX-9590 AM3+ Processor.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Asus A88X-Gamer Motherboard Review

Sharp eyed readers will see a strong similarity between this Asus A88X-Gamer motherboard and the MSI A88X-G45 Gaming (http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/leo-waldock/msi-a88x-g45-gaming-motherboard-review) that we recently reviewed. Fair point. Both motherboards use an AMD A88X chipset to support Socket FM2+ and there is a distinct theme of red and black in the styling. Asus tells us the A88X-Gamer has a specification that is similar to a Z87-era entry-level ROG board, so you get SupremeFX audio with headphone amplifier, ELNA capacitors on audio and PCB shielding.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Cooler Master Storm Mizar Review

Cooler Master introduced the CM Storm Mizar mouse to users throughout North America back in early September 2014. Utilizing an ergonomic design optimized for the right-hand, the black colored Mizar presents a classic appearance.

The Mizar uses the latest Avago 9800 laser sensor to provide DPI levels up to 8200. These DPI setting are controlled by two buttons located directly behind the scroll wheel. The buttons are illuminated for ease of use in low light conditions and allow selection of four DPI settings managed by software.

You’re assured of a comfortable grip on the Mizar with soft rubber sides sporting "dimples." Incorporated into the upper edge of the rubber panel on the left side are two buttons to control forward and back navigation for web browsers.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Edifier Tick Tock Bluetooth Review

Do not be deceived by the mousy look of the retro Edifier Tick Tock Bluetooth retro alarm clock; thanks to the dual drivers, it is able to produce decent quality sound without distortions and at pretty high volumes. The bass is a little on the low side which is perfectly understandable but considering the overall size of the device, we cannot consider this as a negative point.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Huawei Honor 6 Review

With Google seemingly turning its back on the whole affordable flagship phone concept with the Nexus 6, it appears you have to look to China for your Android bargains these days. Following the template set by the OnePlus One, the Honor 6 (from Huawei) provides high-end specs for just £249.99.That's actually a little more expensive than the OnePlus One, but at least you don't have to jump through hoops to buy one - the Honor 6 can be purchased through good old Amazon right now.Huawei is calling the Honor 6 'the world's fastest smartphone', thanks to a combination of a custom octa-core CPU and next generation LTE connectivity, which is quite a claim to make in such an affordable phone.Of course, it's not enough to simply pack your Android smartphone with box-ticking components any longer. People demand a dash of style and personality from their handsets, even if they are only paying half the asking price of the aforementioned Nexus 6.That's perhaps why Huawei seems keen to get a little distance from its slightly uncool brand name here in the West. Just like Oppo with its OnePlus One, Huawei has all but erased its name from the UK Honor 6 packaging.It's there on the phone, but you have to squint at the official labelling on the rear of the handset.It may have a cool new name, but the Honor 6 follows in the footsteps of some solidly built and highly capable Huawei handsets, such as the Huawei Ascend P7. Like that phone, the Honor 6 also comes packing Huawei's distinctive Emotion UI, which won't be to everyone's taste.

Read full article @ Techradar

Inateck Bluetooth 3.0 ultra slim keyboard Review

Usually, when you think of wireless keyboards, names like Microsoft and Logitech come to mind, as they have long been the standard bearers of such devices. However, one name that may not be familiar to you that deserves a look is Inateck. They have put out an ultra slim Bluetooth 3.0 keyboard that warrants your consideration.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 Tool-Less 2.5" HDD Enclosure Review

Having an external enclosure for your Hard Disk and Solid State Drives can come in very handy for a multitude of reasons. You might have those old Hard Disk drives from a laptop you’ve upgraded with an SSD, or an old SSD you’ve upgraded to a bigger and better one, or maybe even both. If you could answer yes to one of those questions, the Inateck FE2005 tool free 2.5″ external enclosure might be just the right choice for you.

Inateck have designed the FE2005 as a tool-less solution and there is no need for any screws or other fastening tools. You just slide your drive into the enclosure, connect it to a USB port and you’re ready to go. It is compatible to all systems with USB ports; Mac OS, Windows and Linux and supports automatic sleep and spin down of the drives.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Nvidia Shield Tablet review: Great gaming, great price, terrible battery

Nvidia delivers the best Android tablet this side of a Nexus. In November, the Google-branded HTC Nexus 9 arrived in a spanking-new Lollipop-shaped cradle, giving Google a chance to reaffirm that, hey, you want to own an Android tablet. But things didn’t quite work out that way. The Lollipop OS update wasn’t the problem; rather, Nexus 9’s mix of high price, unremarkable hardware, and so-so performance added up to something decidedly less than a “statement” device, like Nexus models past, and hopes for Android’s iPad killer faded quickly.

Since then, Lollipop has spread pretty far and wide on newer hardware models, but one of the very first to get the official OS upgrade treatment was an unexpected choice: the Nvidia Shield Tablet.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

OCZ ARC 100 240GB Solid State Drive Review

We have seen a lot of value-oriented solid state drives come out lately. Crucial had their MX100, Samsung had the 840 EVO and now it is OCZ’s turn. The drive we are taking a look at today is the ARC 100 and at its current price at my favorite online retailer the drive sits at $0.44 per GB. As many of you know Toshiba took over OCZ and while back and with that everything inside this drive is owned by OCZ / Toshiba. Powering the drive you have the Barefoot 3 M10 controller and Toshiba A19nm NAND flash. That combination gives you sequential read and write speeds of 480 MB/s and 430 MB/s respectively for the 240 GB version we are testing today. Let’s jump in!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

OCZ challenge KitGuru to kill 5x ARC 100 SSD drives

OCZ have been creating Solid State Drives for as long as we can remember. They produced a massive amount of drives years ago featuring the Sandforce 2281 controller and sadly they ran into their fair share of issues. They were then bought over by Toshiba and have been recently focusing on their excellent Barefoot controller. OCZ are aware of negative public feeling and contacted us recently with a rather interesting proposal. They would send us some Arc 100 drives and we would stress test them over a short period of time, until they died – and all with full public disclosure.

Read full article @ KitGuru

PC Buyers Guide Winter 2014

Welcome to Guru3D's PC Buyer's Guide. An article that will show you example PC components combined of what we are comfortable with recommending to you. Please note that we'll only cover the "innards" of the PC itself. External peripheral devices like; monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, chassis, etc are not included for brevity's sake, as there is a huge range of them and personal choice can influence the purchasing of those items. Thus, by sticking to the "guts", you are free to chose whatever "body" you like. However, if you are in need of assistance, feel free to ask in our supportive forums.

Since this site is called "Guru3D", we will target a system primarily intended for gaming while not depriving you of your limb(s), kidney and some other organs So here are the main criteria that we take into account when deciding what parts to recommend:

Price & Performance: First and foremost, what has the most bang for the bucks, in terms of gaming of course.
Reliability: Second on the list but just as important, things such as compatibility (ever had RAM that worked on one motherboard but not in another?), trustworthiness of a brand overall (do they have a history of making reliable parts?) in addition to the reliability of the part in question.
Overclockability: Overclocking can help squeeze out that extra performance for free out of a system and can make a big impact on price versus performance (why should you buy a € 1,000 CPU if you can overclock a € 300 CPU to match it?) so this factor may swing our decision.
Heat & Power: Heat is the enemy of any computer and it can affect the stability (and reliability) of it. Performance per watt has improved over time. Thus, having an efficient system for your needs would be better for your wallet and the environment in the long run.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Samsung UE48H6500 Review

nA true luxury item just a couple of years ago, that a 48-inch TV from a top global brand is going for under £599 is almost unbelievable.OK, so Samsung has been the market leader and chief price-cutter for a good decade, but the UE48H6500's pricing remains jaw-dropping. That's until you spy the Philips 48PFT5509, an identically-sized Full HD LED TV that manages to cost just £350 in the UK.It all suggests that the sweet-spot for TV production has moved from 40-inch to 48-inch – and that's great news for anyone after a serious upgrade for their living room. While the Philips might lacks a few smart TV niceties, this Samsung is an altogether more serious proposition. DesignYou like glossy black plastic? That's what you get if you want a 48-incher for this small a spend, though it would be hugely unfair to call the UE48H6500 cheaply-made or ugly. It's really not. While it's about 63.5mm deep – so hardly super-slim – the all-important bezel around the screen measures 4mm on the top and sides (though it does have another 5mm of black screen before the image begins), and 20mm on the bottom.The silver, glinting spider-style desktop stand helps the UE48H6500 have a pretty minimal footprint. It's sturdy enough on an AV stand, and that spider-stand allows for the TV to be re-positioned slightly, which is increasingly rare on flatscreen TVs.

Read full article @ Techradar

Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO CPU Cooler Review

Thermaltake has been around for over 15 years and is a company that has dabbled into many different corners of the computer market. You can find anything from coolers, cases, power supplies, mice, keyboard, headsets, and so much more. Today we’re going to take a look at a more recent re-release of an AIO cooler called the Water 3.0 Extreme S Model # CLW0224-B.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

XFX Radeon R9 290 Double Dissipation Edition Review

Today on our test bench we will pit the XFX Radeon R9 290 Double Dissipation Edition against a pair of green team cards to determine the king of the mid range. Prices have fallen a dramatically in recent weeks on AMD R9 290 GPU based video cards. Should you count these out in light of the new GeForce GTX 970 We will find out today.

Read full article @ HardOCP