Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

Apotop S3C 256GB SSD Review
Corsair HXi Series 1000 W Review
Five tips for speeding up your work within LibreOffice Writer
Fractal Core 1100 Computer Case Review
Genius MX Gaming Gila Mouse Review
Hands-on review: IFA 2014: Asus Zenbook UX305
Hands-on review: IFA 2014: LG G3 Stylus
Icy Box FlexCage MB973SP 2B Trayless 3-in-2 SATA Backplane
Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E Review: A True 8-core Desktop CPU
Moto 360 Review
Plextor M6 PRO 256GB Solid State Drive Review
PowerColor R9 285 Turbo Duo Review
PowerColor R9 285 TurboDuo Review
PowerColor Radeon R9 285 2GB Review
PowerColor Radeon R9 285 TurboDuo 2GB Review
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X OC R9-285 Review
Shogun Bros Ensense Commander Series Pro Gaming Headset Review
Under Defeat HD Review

Apotop S3C 256GB SSD Review

The new Apotop S3C SSD features the Silicon Motion 2246EN controller which we first reviewed in the Angelbird 512GB wrk SSD (http://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/zardon/angelbird-512gb-wrk-ssd-review/) back in August this year. The controller impressed us, so we have already high hopes for the Apotop S3C.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Corsair HXi Series 1000 W Review

Corsair just introduced the new HXi series, comprised of members with Platinum efficiency and full compatibility with the Corsair Link software. Today, we will take a look at the second-strongest unit of the line with 1 kW capacity, ideal for a power-hungry system with up to four VGAs.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Five tips for speeding up your work within LibreOffice Writer

If you're looking for ways to make LibreOffice Writer more efficient, Jack Wallen has five tips to help you out.

Read full article @ TechRepublic

Fractal Core 1100 Computer Case Review

The Core 1100 is an extremely compact Micro ATX case. These new Core series are very aggressively priced yet Fractal manages to deliver an uncompromising solution in their typical no frills nor thrills design. No windowed side panel here though lads, keep in mind that the pricing of 35 dollars is insanely low for a non OEM enclosure.

One can't expect too many features on a case of this price level. Nevertheless to maintain that Scandinavian look Fractal opted to give the front panel a brushed aluminum look. The windowless side panel has room for an optional 120mm Fan to enhance the air flow, directly on the installed hardware components.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Genius MX Gaming Gila Mouse Review

A computer mouse is such a personal thing. With so many choices on the market, how to know if a particular mouse will fit your needs? Big mice, small mice, wide mice, tall mice. Sounds like something straight out of a Dr.Seuss book. How to tell the differences and how to make the decision to fit your tastes?

Well, today we’re going to test drive the Genius GX Gaming Gila, a mouse that’s specifically geared to MMO/RTS gamers. Coming with a huge assortment of buttons and some unique features as well, the Gila looks rather exciting.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

Hands-on review: IFA 2014: Asus Zenbook UX305

Asus unveiled the UX305, its newest flagship laptop at IFA 2014 this week. The device, it claims, is the world's thinnest 13-in QHD+ ultrabook, giving it one of the highest pixel densities of any computers on the market.It faces competition from the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and the Samsung ATIV Book 9 as well as the Apple MacBook Pro Retina Display, although we expect vendors to refresh their current thin-and-light laptop range very soon.

Read full article @ Techradar

Hands-on review: IFA 2014: LG G3 Stylus

The LG G3 Stylus aims to bring the style of the flagship LG G3 to a more affordable price point, while also getting the addition of a stylus. LG has promised that the G3 Stylus will carry an affordable price tag, but it's still unclear what it means by that as we wait to hear official word on how much it will cost.It's safe to say though that this 5.5-inch handset won't be challenging the might of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, as its set to slide into the busy middle market.The stunning QHD display from the G3 has been lost on the G3 Stylus, and you'll have to settle for the less impressive qHD IPS 5.5-inch screen - that's a lowly resolution of 960 x 540.While that may sound awful on paper, in reality I found the G3 Stylus was still very readable, and it's perfectly acceptable for a lower tier device.

Read full article @ Techradar

Icy Box FlexCage MB973SP 2B Trayless 3-in-2 SATA Backplane

It’s a self-evident truth that our requirement for storage will never stop increasing. While the cloud promises plenty for the future, up and download speeds will need to increase several fold before we can do away with local storage. That leaves NAS and internal drives. Icy Box offers a handy solution for those who want direct drive access.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E Review: A True 8-core Desktop CPU

Intel's Extreme Edition processor line is over a decade old now, starting way back in 2003 with the single-core Pentium 4 EE 3.4GHz. Fast forward to today, the chip we'll be looking at boasts eight cores, a massive 20MB smart cache, support for the latest DDR4 memory, and is accompanied by the new X99 chipset for more SATA 6Gb/s ports (10 rather than just two) and finally brings native USB 3.0 to Intel's flagship platform.

Read full article @ Techspot

Moto 360 Review

Motorola creates an iconic design, but pairs it with an ancient, power-hungry SoC. After what seems like an eternity, the most promising Android Wear hardware has finally hit the market. While the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live were first to market, the Moto 360 has always felt like the flagship device for Android Wear.

While the software seems like it's headed in the right direction, the hardware for smartwatches has felt like a live experiment being carried out in the marketplace. Pebble has aimed for maximum battery life with a black-and-white e-ink screen, and Samsung's hardware machine gun has been in full effect, releasing everything from a wrist-mounted smartphone to a skinny, curved OLED device focused on fitness.

Spend a few minutes with the 360 and you'll quickly realize that the square, plastic designs other manufacturers are pushing are dead-on-arrival. The Moto 360 design is a huge step forward for smartwatches. It's round, it's comfortable to wear, and it looks like a normal watch.

Read full article @ Arstechnica

Plextor M6 PRO 256GB Solid State Drive Review

Plextor has been a big name in storage for as long as I can remember. In the past they were the crowned kings of optical drives and these days we see one great performing Solid State Drive (SSD) after another. We’ve tested several of them lately and today the time has come to the brand new Plextor M6 PRO 256GB SSD.

When you hold this drive in your hands, it becomes clear right away that this isn’t your everyday SSD. The golden package is the first giveaway, including the the entire inside of the packaging. Plextor has clearly given it some thought on how to present this drive the best and at the same time pack all the accessories into the tiny box.

And there is a big package on accessories, everything we need. There is the obligatory small manual but also a installation guide for beginners on how to replace an existing hard drive with this new solid state drive. The 3½ inch adapter bracket is included and so are the 8 screws needed for this. We also get a driver and software disk and a small folder for support and VIP registration. Oh, and it even comes with an extra SATA cable to help when transferring files from your old drive. A true all in one package.

Read full article @ eTeknix

PowerColor R9 285 Turbo Duo Review

After settling on a 1075MHz clock speed for the core I moved on to the memory and used the same strategy before fine tuning the result at 1511MHz. Overall the boost in core clock speed over the 945MHz factory clock speed was 130MHz on the core or roughly 13% worth of free clock speed. The Elpida GDDR5 memory ICs gave up just under 10% more clock speed or 136MHz. These are not stellar numbers, but 10%+ bumps in overall clock speed will give you that extra few FPS that may make 2560x1440 gaming that much more enjoyable.

Read full article @ OCC

PowerColor R9 285 TurboDuo Review

Over the first week of September, multiple AMD board partners launched their versions of the Radeon R9 285. This new card is based on the third revision of AMD's GCN architecture, a 28nm GPU code-named Tonga that comes with a base clock of up to 918MHz for the core and 1375MHz on the memory. As the name would suggest, the R9 285 is here to take over the fight for the $250 MSRP price segment from the R9 280, with the prime target being the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760. Looking at the available numbers, the Tonga GPU brings to the table a total of 1792 stream processors, 112 texture units, and 32 ROPs much like the Radeon R9 280 and its Tahiti Pro2 chip. You can put your hands and eyebrows down, since that's pretty much where the similarities end!

The Tonga core takes a step up from Tahiti in offering four rasterisers and four tessellation units just like the Hawaii cores found in the higher end AMD offerings, namely the Radeon R9 290 and 290X. If these specs seem confusing, AMD made the new R9 285 even more intriguing by opting for a 2GB GDDR5 memory configuration running at 1375MHz (5500MHz effective) on a 256-bit interface which translates into 176GB/s total bandwidth. This is very close to what the Curacao XT-based Radeon R9 270X offers. The technical specs make this third generation GCN look like a mix of previous and recent AMD offerings and the feature list of the R9 285 confirms it. Tonga comes with the CrossFire XDMA technology, TrueAudio, and PowerTune. The new core also supports AMD's ambitious project FreeSync.

AMD did not provide any R9 285 reference cards that I know about at the time of writing. Instead, today I will be looking at the PowerColor variant of the card. Keeping true to its high standards and quest for performance, PowerColor tweaked the reference design of this card with some major customizations. The PowerColor R9 285 TurboDuo sports a "Gold Power Kit" including 5+1+1 phase power design, PowerPAK SO-8, and SVI2 Green Power management technology. PowerColor also bumped the stock core clock by a conservative 2.94% yelding 945MHz, while keeping the memory at the base frequency of 1375MHz. It did however fit the card with its custom TurboDuo cooling technology providing 13% lower acoustics and 15% lower temps, which might prove quite useful if the card has higher overclocking potential.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

PowerColor Radeon R9 285 2GB Review

Don’t you hate it when you just bought the newest piece of technology and something that is supposed to be better and cooler comes out? I know I sure do but that seems to be the life of a computer enthusiast. It seems like every time I look at the news, I see a new revision of the current graphics card, better SSDs, larger hard drives or faster processors coming out. The big question for me is always how long do I wait to upgrade my machine? The answer for me is usually when there is a significant jump in the technology, this way I am not constantly spending money on small gains.

What seems to be happening with the industry is we are in this cycle of getting really small incremental gains in hardware. Typically, I am finding that you can skip a generation and still have a high performance system. Then there are times when you get a small leap in the supported features without too much gain in performance. In these cases, the benefits of the features that get added create the need to consider upgrading sooner. For example, we have the R9 285 GPU, which adds support for FreeSync and DirectX 12.

The PowerColor Radeon R9 285 graphics card comes with a total of 2GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory on the PowerColor R9 285 is clocked at 1375MHz, which equates to 5.5Gbps effective memory speed. Connectivity is supported through the Dual-Link DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort connections on the back of the card. There is also support for AMD Eyefinity for a multi-monitor support. The GPU core is clocked at 945MHz, up from the 918MHz stock clock speeds. It is built with next generation technologies in mind and includes support for AMD TrueAudio, Mantle, and FreeSync.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

PowerColor Radeon R9 285 TurboDuo 2GB Review

Late last year, AMD introduced the Hawaii based Radeon R9 290/290X along with the Bonaire based Radeon R7 260/260X which utilized AMD’s updated GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. AMD’s updated GCN architecture, which we’ll refer to GCN 1.1, supported new features such as improved compute performance, on die audio processing, and improvements to AMD’s PowerTune technology to offer a faster, more power efficient chip than its GCN 1.0 cousins.

Unfortunately, AMD’s GCN update didn’t cover the mid-range GCN 1.0 based GPUs such as the Radeon R9 270/R9 270X or the Radeon R9 280/280X, which meant gamers who wanted the GCN 1.1 architecture had to choose between the Radeon R7 260/260X or the Radeon R9 290/290X – cards that differed massively in both price and performance. At the time, AMD simply didn’t offer a middle ground.

This is where AMD’s latest Radeon R9 285 codename Tonga GPU comes in.

Read full article @ Custom PC Review

SAPPHIRE DUAL-X OC R9-285 Review

Announced at AMD's 30 Years of Graphics And Gaming celebration last month, and newly released this week, the Radeon R9 285 is AMD's first major card launch since the dual-GPU R9 295X2 was released back in April. Indeed it is their new silicon since Hawaii debuted with the Radeon R9 290X in October of last year. All indications are however that this new card isn't a major architectural revision, instead relied on the tried and tested GCN architecture which served them well through the 7000-series and into the 97 & R9 era, perhaps waiting for a mature 20nm manufacturing node to become available. As a consequence major performance gains from this new GPU, codenamed Tonga, may be too much to expect; AMD have surprised us in the past though.

The Tonga Pro GPU within each R9 285 has specifications quite similar to the (Tahiti Pro-based) Radeon R9 280 it obstensively replaces. In addition to being based on the same 28nm lithography process it also features the same number of shaders, tessellation units, ROPs and an equivalent Z Stenzil Buffer depth as its predecessor. It is also clocked slightly lower and has a narrower memory bus (256bit vs 364bit), and less VRAM overall (2GB vs 3GB). In fact, the only value for which it exceeds the R9 280 is in memory bandwidth (5.5 Gbps vs 5 Gbps).

Read full article @ Vortez

Shogun Bros Ensense Commander Series Pro Gaming Headset Review

Today is a good day in the office, Shogun Bros are one of the newest players in the peripherals market and they’re back again with their second feature review here at eTeknix. When I reviewed their Ballista MK1 gaming mouse it proved that the company knows how to make a great peripheral without the need for a crazy budget, it was packed full of features, had great build quality, really nice aesthetics and competitive performance. Now they’re launching their first headset and if it is half as good as their gaming mouse, then we should be in for a real treat today.

The Ensense is the latest headset on the market to feature vibration drivers to give the sound some extra thump. Targeted right at the heart of the gaming market the Ensense is said to be perfect for everything from enjoying your games at home to competitive eSports. All the usual bells and whistles you would expect from a premium headset are included, such as a high-quality microphone, Virtual 7.1 surround, configurable sound and a whole lot more, so lets get stuck right in and see what the Ensense has to offer!

Read full article @ eTeknix

Under Defeat HD Review

All retail Xbox One games enjoy simultaneous downloadable releases, allowing gamers to choose between physical or digital copies of their favorite games. On Xbox 360 though, "Games on Demand" downloadable releases are far from ubiquitous and often arrive several months after the same games launch at retail. Even less common, sometimes an Xbox 360 game that originated at retail in one territory gets released solely as a Games on Demand title in others. Think Resident Evil Revelations or Deathsmiles II, both exclusively downloadable titles in America. Now we can add another to that list, because Japanese developer G.Rev's Xbox 360 shoot-em-up (shmup) Under Defeat HD has finally made its way to America via Games on Demand for $19.99. Find out whether Under Defeat HD was worth the wait in our review with exclusive game play video and screenshots!

Read full article @ WPCentral