Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

AMD FX 8320E Processor Review
ASUS GTX 980 Matrix Platinum Review
Budget All-round PC - November 2014
Crucial MX100 256GB Solid State Drive Review
G.Skill RipJaws 4 16GB 2800MHz Review
Game Realism Via NVIDIA Enhanced Effects
Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 Review
HyperX Predator DDR4 Memory Review
Inateck FE2006 Review - 2.5-inch USB 3.0 External Drive UASP
Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review
Know Your Type: Five Mechanical Gaming Keyboards Compared
Lian-Li PC-05S Wall Mountable Mini-ITX Chassis Review
Mac OS X Yosemite, From The Perspective Of A Linux User
MSI Afterburner 4.1.0 released
Prepare your PC to upgrade to Windows 10 through Windows Update
QPAD UC50 & FX90 Mouse Mats
Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (1TB) – Differing Series Controllers Compared
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (video) Review
Sony Xperia Z3 Review
SteelSeries Siberia v3 Gaming Headset Review
Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W Review
Testing the £4,254 Abyss 1266 Headphones
The Best Chassis for Steambox/HTPC Style Gaming Systems

AMD FX 8320E Processor Review

We review the AMD FX 8320E processor today. It's Vishera time again, and yeah that is the codename for the Piledriver core based FX series processors from AMD. The very affordable (125 EURO / 139 USD) CPU tested today has eight physical CPU cores, it will have a base clock of 3200 MHz, and can Turbo towards 4000. And that makes the FX series a tiny multi-threaded beast. You can read our review right here at Guru3D of course. This is a more energy friendly E type FX processor. That CPU still has eight physical CPU cores but it will have a much lower base clock of 3200 MHz, but it can still Turbo towards 4000. Ah yes, released two years ago you guys will be familiar hearing the magic word 'Vishera', it is the codename for the Piledriver core based FX series processors from AMD.

The chip feature eight cores, 4.00GHz Turbo clock-rates, 8MB L2 cache, 8MB L3 cache and dual-channel DDR3 memory controllers. The FX-8320E will have thermal design power of 95W.

Read full article @ Guru3D

ASUS GTX 980 Matrix Platinum Review

ASUS’ Republic of Gamers Matrix graphics cards may be one of the most desirable series around and there’s good reason for that. They have advanced features, upgraded components, high out-of-box clock speeds and typically feature some incredible overclocking headroom. This is why enthusiasts have been waiting for ASUS to bring the Matrix namesake over to NVIDIA’s Maxwell lineup and that’s exactly what has finally happened with the GTX 980 Matrix Platinum.

The GTX 980 lineup from ASUS is relatively straightforward with a reference-based card sitting in the lowest $549 tier and the shockingly-good STRIX OC just above that with a mere $20 premium. The Matrix Platinum takes over flagship status at an understandably high price of $650USD or a staggering $720CAD but considering the competition’s comparable cost structures, ASUS’ asking price seems right in line with expectation. With that being said, EVGA’s Classified, Zotac’s AMP! Extreme and MSI’s upcoming Lightning will likely put up a fierce fight for supremacy. the “standard” GTX 980 Matrix will likely hit a cost slightly lower than that.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Budget All-round PC - November 2014

Surfing, gaming, business applications, photo and video editing should all be possible on the all-round PC without giving you the feeling that it's lacking in performance.

This means a fast processor and graphics card with an excellent price/ performance ratio, in combination with more than enough memory and storage space. Let's not forget a good computer case and a power supply that will remain energy efficient and silent enough for some years to come. Since the monitor, mouse and keyboard will be used daily you should definitely not skimp on these peripherals.

It's essential that an all-round PC is balanced. It's less important that you picked the fastest components than that they work well together and are on the same level of performance. If you have bigger budget, than you could have a look at our All-round Deluxe PC as well.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Crucial MX100 256GB Solid State Drive Review

When you hang out with the same group of people frequently enough, it is easy to integrate inside jokes into your every day life. This is because the deep mutual understanding developed between each other will automatically create an overly comfortable zone in discussion, and this works out pretty well -- as long as you are with the same people all the time. Recently, I was hanging out with a different group of friends. When one of them gave me their cell phone number, I said, without thinking, that I would "call [her] maybe". Now, with my usual group of friends, this would have just been a regular remark, since we say it so often with no real implications. However, with this group of friends, everyone else just looked at me weirdly -- to which I quickly followed up with a "just kidding". As you can see, sometimes, we take things so for granted, it is easy to forget about that it is even there at all. Ever since 2011, I have equipped every computer I own with one or more SSDs. In fact, since then, I have moved to forgo traditional HDDs altogether, and just slapped in a bunch of SSDs for all my storage needs. It was not before long that I forgot how a hard drive performed, until the day I started using my office computer conveniently equipped with only hard drives, and I started to scratch my head wondering why the computer took so long to boot, and how long it took to extract certain ZIP archives. It was then I remembered that solid state drives were a luxury until quite recently. With the release of OCZ's ARC 100, SanDisk's Ultra II, and Crucial's MX100 we are reviewing today, has it finally dawned upon us the day that we can finally equip every mainstream computer with a good performing SSD? We fired one up to find out.

Read full article @ APH Networks

G.Skill RipJaws 4 16GB 2800MHz Review

G.Skills Ripjaws 4 modules performed well in the comparison testing exceeding the performance of the comparison modules in almost every test at the XMP 2.0 rated speeds and timings. That in and of itself, is a reason to get a set of modules with tighter timings in the speed bin of your choosing. At 2800MHz, the G.Skill modules are at the extreme end of the spectrum if I was looking at DDR3 modules, but in DDR4 modules, it is right in the module of the G.Skill lineup that has X99 certified kits up to 3333MHz as long as your pocket can handle the hit for modules rated that high.

Read full article @ OCC

Game Realism Via NVIDIA Enhanced Effects

Earlier this year, NVIDIA introduced the Maxwell architecture and a lot of upcoming features that Benchmark Reviews briefly talked about on the review of the GTX 980 by Olin Coles. These features were demonstrated in detail, but were still pending to be released on actual games, that is until Assassin’s Creed Unity was released earlier this year. Thanks to NVIDIA GameWorks, game developers have the ability to use NVIDIA’s sample libraries and SDKs as well as implementing some of the features mentioned that allow for a more realistic game-play experience.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 Review

A good base for a powerful small-form-factor system. Gigabyte hit many of the right notes with the £200 X99 Gaming 5 motherboard released back in August. Sensible layout and a good choice of extras was only compromised by a BIOS that we felt was a little too clever for itself.

Intel's premium consumer PC platform is now being given the micro-ATX makeover by Gigabyte. The X99M Gaming 5 follows in the footsteps of its full-sized namesake but adds a few touches of its own.

Read full article @ Hexus

HyperX Predator DDR4 Memory Review

The HyperX Predator memory we are going to be looking at today not only offers fast speeds of 3000MHz out of the box, but also offers the efficiency of lower voltage; we can see some great potential with additional performance once overclocked. We will be comparing results from Kingston's (HyperX) previous line up from its DDR3 series to see if these claims line up.

Read full article @ PureOverclock

Inateck FE2006 Review - 2.5-inch USB 3.0 External Drive UASP

Looking for a 2.5-inch USB 3.0 external drive enclosure that supports the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) to get the fastest data transfer speeds possible? Inateck might not be a household name just yet, but they've slowing been becoming a force to reckon with on major retailers like Amazon. The area that Inateck is really turning heads in is the USB 3.0 external enclosure market where they offer several models that support that UASP transfer protocol. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 has a maximum bandwidth rate of 5 gbps (gigabits per second) or 640 MBps (megabytes per second) though you'll never see a drive running at that theoretical value. Inatek told Legit Reviews that with the right drive you should be able to reach speeds of up to 450MB/s on a system with a high-end SATA III SSD along with UASP suport. LR can't ignore speeds like that and got our hands on Inateck's latest USB 3.0 enclosure that is called the Inateck FE2006.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit Review

We have taken a look at a few different DDR4 memory kits over the past couple of months. The kits ranged from entry-level to high-end. Kingston’s HyperX brand is known as their high-end brand. Their best memory and solid state drives are part of the HyperX family. Of course with DDR4 being new we expected some new HyperX memory and Kingston delivered with their HyperX Predator series. This is not your typical memory, it is high-end with some of the tightest timings we have seen for DDR4 and the performance to match it. The Predator Series is available in speeds ranging from 2133 MHz all the way up to 3000 MHz. Today we will be taking a look at the HX424C12PB2K4/16 kit which is a 16 GB kit running at 2400 MHz with timings of 12-13-13-35 at 1.35V. Let’s see what this kit can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Know Your Type: Five Mechanical Gaming Keyboards Compared

If you're in the market for a mechanical keyboard, we're here to help. We've gathered up five different gaming models from as many manufactures--Corsair, Roccat, Tt eSports, Razer, and Cooler Master, three of which are of the compact ten-keyless variety (fancy pants way of saying there's no dedicated number pad), the other two being full size planks. Granted, this is just a small sample of the numerous options available to you, though these are some of the more popular models by recognized brands in the gaming peripheral market...

Read full article @ HotHardware.com

Lian-Li PC-05S Wall Mountable Mini-ITX Chassis Review

Lian-Li is a master of aluminium chassis design. Time and time again they’ve created incredible chassis that are works of art as much as they are practical, high-performance juggernauts. Today is a pretty special day for Lian-Li as it marks the launch of their latest fanciful chassis, the PC-05S, which is rather unique in the sense that it can be used as a horizontal HTPC style chassis, mounted vertically on a special stand for desktop use, or even more special than that, you can mount it on a wall!

The chassis modding scene has seen wall mounted chassis already, as there are a lot of people out there who love to show off their rigs and what better way than putting it right up on display where everyone can see it. Of course, this is a pretty specialist product, which isn’t going to appeal to everyone out there, but for those that want to take a break from the standard chassis form factors that sit under your desk, the PC-05S is certainly a breath of fresh air.

The PC-O5S is one of four chassis in the wall-mountable range from Lian-Li, of which there will support for different hardware, including water cooling support with the 05S, 06S and 07S models. The chassis I have at my disposal today is the mini-ITX model, which comes with support for a slim optical drive, removable hard drive bays, room for many of the largest graphics cards on the market, an SFX power supply and more.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Mac OS X Yosemite, From The Perspective Of A Linux User

Its been a while since Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite has been released into the wild, so we have a pretty good idea of how it performs. Mac OS X is also sometimes used as the poster child for a clean and elegant interface (most of the time, anyways). As a Linux writer, its my duty to make comparisons not only amongst Linux distros, but also against the competition. With Yosemite out and a new wave of distro releases out, its time to make the comparison between Yosemite and and these new releases. Which performs better? Which looks better?

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

MSI Afterburner 4.1.0 released

MSI Afterburner 4.1.0 Official Download - Guru3D and MSI have been working hard on AfterBurner, today we release an updated this revision of Afterburner, this application successfully secured the leading position on graphics card utilities.

MSI Afterburner is ultimate graphics card utility, co-developed by MSI and Guru3D RivaTuner teams. The Beta releases have a expiration limit, the Stable and Final releases do not.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Prepare your PC to upgrade to Windows 10 through Windows Update

Microsoft will release a new Windows 10 Preview build in January to the public. Most expect it to be the consumer-focused build company representatives were talking about earlier this year but no one outside of the company knows for sure right now what it will ship with.

One indicator that this is likely the case is the release of a new tool. The Prepare this PC program enables users of supported versions of Windows, that means Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, to update to the next preview of Windows 10 using Windows Update.

Read full article @ gHacks

QPAD UC50 & FX90 Mouse Mats

QPAD's newest gaming mats are put to the test. The new UC series is the simple soft-performance mat, while the FX-series seeks to bridge the gap between the harder hybrid mats and the soft top mats. Both are available in five different sizes, so you can get one that fits your needs. Prices start at a very reasonable €10 for the smallest ones.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (1TB) – Differing Series Controllers Compared

The Samsung 850 EVO is a third generation TLC NAND SSD, second 3D V-NAND product on the market, and the first SSD in the industry to feature 3-bit 3D V-NAND. At first people were weary of TLC NAND, due to the issues it presents. TLC NAND has much lower endurance and slower performance when compared to MLC and SLC. By the numbers, this speaks to a SSD that might be slower and have a lower lifespan than competing products, however, Samsung's TLC products have proven reliable, and after with two generations of planar (2D) TLC NAND products, more people are seeing TLC NAND products as a viable option. Now, Samsung have finally moved on to 3-bit 3D NAND manufacturing following their 2-bit 3D NAND manufacturing process.

The simple truth is that, unless you are using your system for intense media projects, there won't be any visible difference whatsoever in what you see on your PC screen as compared to any other SSD, and, in fact, this might be the ideal consumer SSD.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (video) Review

You could assume that the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is the Korean tech giant’s attempt to change the shape of smartphones and phablets as we know them. If you do assume so, then you would be correct.

Read full article @ Silicon Republic

Sony Xperia Z3 Review

Just six months on from the release of the Xperia Z2, Sony has yet another flagship phone on the market, its new Z3 device.

Read full article @ Silicon Republic

SteelSeries Siberia v3 Gaming Headset Review

Today I will be reviewing the SteelSeries Siberia v3 Gaming Headset. Great audio can make any visual experience that much better.  For many of us, out of courtesy, we are unable to unleash the full surround sound system. This is why a great headset is necessary. When you find a headset that delivers rich deep sounding bass, excellent highs, and no distortion; you will disappear into an ideal audiophile world. One of the biggest complaints about headsets can be that after wearing them for a while, they begin to make your ears ache, compresses your head to much, or being too heavy. I will test these areas in detail while I put the Siberia v3 Gaming Headset by SteelSeries through the gauntlet.
  
"For the past 10 years the Siberia brand has been synonymous with quality gaming audio. We set the bar for comfort and performance with the original Siberia (v1). The critically acclaimed Siberia v2 went on to become the number one PC gaming headset in the world. Not ones to rest on past success, we knew the Siberia v3 would have to be an incredible headset. We delivered."

Let us continue this review and see if what SteelSeries claims stands true and firm. If so, the Siberia v3 may just be that must have headset for the Holiday Season.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W Review

While we have been focusing recently on super high power output supplies in excess of 1000 watts, we felt today it was worth revisiting a popular unit sold by Overclockers UK for £85.99 inc vat. The Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W is fully modular with 80 Plus Gold Certification and support for two high end graphics cards – ideal for those building a new SLI or Crossfire system with a budget under £100.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Testing the £4,254 Abyss 1266 Headphones

If you were given the task of creating the world’s best headphones how would you do it? American cable experts JPS Labs proposed the same question but took it a stage further by taking the lofty challenge head on. Targeting the wealthy audiophile audience, money was firmly a secondary factor for consideration. After many years of research and development their planar magnetic Abyss 1266 headphones are the end result. Just be sure to check your bank balance beforehand, because the price of admission is a heart stopping £4,254 inc vat.

Read full article @ KitGuru

The Best Chassis for Steambox/HTPC Style Gaming Systems

Steambox is certainly grabbing a lot of headlines throughout 2014, with system integrators (such as CyberPower) creating their own custom Steambox style systems, and chassis manufacturers creating new cases that are suitable for the job. Of course, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors surrounding Steambox, but we’re going to blow away any doubt and get you up to speed on what a Steambox is and how you can do it.

First thing is first, Steambox is a PC, nothing less and nothing more. What we’re really looking at here is a clever rebranding by Valve to make HTPC gaming sound cool. Of course, it really is cool and credit goes to Valve for creating something that is appealing to both mainstream console gamers, as much as it is PC gamers. The major difference for Steambox is the introduction of SteamOS, which is still in beta, but once again all that really is a Linux distro designed to launch Steam as the native desktop. This may sound a little complicated for some, but don’t worry as I’ll be revisiting this subject over the next couple of weeks to bring you up to speed on how it all works, how you can build your own, set everything up and more.

While much of the fun stuff is certainly contained within the games you’ll be playing, let’s start things off nice and easy and find out about the chassis you’ll be using. There are lots of great PC chassis’ on the market, but I’ve picked up a bunch that I thought would be ideal for the job and today I’m going to put them to the test. I’ll be looking for several key factors from each chassis, their price, form factor, hardware/component compatibility, built quality, acoustic performance and thermal performance.

Read full article @ eTeknix