Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Case Mod Friday: Origami
Choetech Qi Wireless Chargers for Lumia 950 and 950 XL Review
Cooler Master Storm Xornet II Optical Mouse Review
Dell XPS 15 (Late 2015) Review
Do I Need to Watercool my PC? Fact or Fiction
Gelid Antarctica review: good and quiet CPU cooler
Kingston DataTraveler 2000 Encrypted Flash Drive Review
Manjaro 15.12 Xfce - It started almighty but then
PC Specialist Octane II Laptop Review
Rise of the Tomb Raider PC Game analysis
Rise of the Tomb Raider: Performance Analysis
Seek Thermal Turns Your Android Phone/Tablet Into A Thermal Imaging Camera
Synology DiskStation DS1515+ Network Attached Storage Review
Thermaltake Suppressor F31 Midi Tower Review

Case Mod Friday: Origami

Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have MetallicAcid's “Origami” build. Here is what they had to say about it, "Hello everybody, and welcome to yet another of my modded projects! I would like to introduce you to my project named "Origami" which features the exclusive In Win S-Frame chassis. The name Origami is inspired by the way this single 2m long, 4mm thick aluminium plate has been folded 15 times to give this unique chassis it's form. There is no floor or roof, and tempered glass panels which really set this chassis aside from most all other PC enclosures on the market today. I felt that I would take on the challenge of modding this chassis to enhance its design in typical MetallicAcid style, complete with brushed aluminium panels, and a full custom water cooled loop with hardline tubing.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Choetech Qi Wireless Chargers for Lumia 950 and 950 XL Review

I have been checking out some wireless charging stands/bases over the last couple of weeks from Choetech for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. These are good looking products that work very well.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Cooler Master Storm Xornet II Optical Mouse Review

For the Japanese car industry, sport models of vehicles evolved from their normal editions are normally wider than the rest of their siblings. For example, the Subaru Impreza WRX STI is 5.5 cm wider than normal Impreza WRX, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is 5 cm wider than normal Lancer, and the Nissan Skyline R34 GTR is 6 cm wider than normal Skyline R34. Although it is not necessarily the case wider body design equals to better performance from all aspects, having wheels spanning outwards can increase stability, so handling is consequently enhanced. On the other hand, wider body designs featuring the flared quarter panel also emits aggressiveness, which is essential to being a sports car. There are lots of ways to make the standard edition look like the sports edition, but if you pay attention to the quarter panels, you can easily tell who the ricer is. In today's review, I am not intending to give you an impression that the Cooler Master Xornet II, which is today's reviewing subject, is inspired by any Japanese Domestic Market sports car, but when I saw the Xornet II for the first time, the wide body design soon draw my attention. Unlike the cars, the Xornet II's wide body design is not intend to enhance handling, but rather, due to the ergonomic consideration. Now there comes the question: With the extra wideness for the ring finger rest, will this claw grip mouse deserve the description on its retail package, “The best optical gaming mouse design for claw grip”? Let us find out.

Read full article @ APH Networks

Dell XPS 15 (Late 2015) Review

The XPS 15 sees Dell bring its evolutionary InfinityEdge display to a 15-inch laptop for the first time. If you're a fan of the XPS 13's space-saving design, but enjoy the productivity gains of a 15-inch laptop, Dell's latest machine promises workstation-class performance in a similarly compact chassis boasting the footprint of a 14-inch laptop.As a former 11-inch MacBook Air owner, I was a fan of last year's revamped XPS 13. It looked the part, had the chops to cope with any task I threw at it and fit snugly into my backpack. The XPS 15 sacrifices some of that portability in exchange for a roomy 4K display and a dedicated GPU. This makes the Dell XPS 15 a good, but not great, choice for 1080p gaming – but more on that later.Design for lifeThe new XPS 15 bears little resemblance to its early 2015 predecessor, which itself was upgraded with a 4K display. The latest model's corners are much squarer, lending it a more box-like shape, and any silver flourishes on the inside have been swallowed up by a sea of matte black material. Dell's latest XPS 15 is essentially a larger XPS 13 design-wise, from the black Dell logo etched into its silver aluminium lid to the thatched pattern on its black base. The laptop's minimalist look is the opposite of what you'll find on flashy gaming laptops. If you prefer the quietly subdued, no-nonsense look, then you'll enjoy what the XPS 15 has to offer.I find the tactile, rubberized material around the trackpad much more welcoming than the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro's all-aluminium base, though the XPS 15 gets dirtier much easier.

Read full article @ Techradar

Do I Need to Watercool my PC? Fact or Fiction

The question on the table can be divided into two parts. First does your computer need cooled? And how cool should it be??

Answering the first question is easy. Yes, your computer needs to be cooled. Processors have gotten very efficient at converting electricity into work but still generate heat as a byproduct. Something about equalizing an equation that contains an efficiency coefficient. Lots of math and the bottom line is the chips need to run at a certain temperature to maintain that efficiency.

Answering the second part is a little more complicated. How “cool” should your computer be? Hardware manufacturers like Intel, AMD and NVIDIA go through great lengths to answer that question. They want to know how long these components will last and ultimately determine if it will survive the entire warranty period. Beyond that they are no longer responsible and will move on.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Gelid Antarctica review: good and quiet CPU cooler

Gelid recently released a new CPU cooler. The Antarctica features a 140mm fan and is supposed to offer good cooling performance with low noise. Time to test how it really performs.

Lately manufacturers release more and more CPU coolers equipped with a 140mm fan, instead of a 120mm fan. We've already seen this trend with casefans for a longer period: larger fans usually produce the same airflow at lower fan speeds (which leads to lower noise levels), therefore strongly increasing the efficiency of the cooling. It should come as a surprise that many of the best tested CPU coolers feature a 140mm fan.

The Gelid Antarctica features five heatpipes made from aluminum and copper. These should transfer 220 Watt of heat from the processor to the heatsink, which is enough to cool an overclocked high-end processor. The minimum fan speed is 450 rpm and the maximum is 1500 rpm. The fan header is 4-pins, which is why it supports PWM - when the fan is connected to a PWM fan header the fan speed can be controlled much more precise. The fan also feature a Hydrodynamic bearing, a bearing which very much resembles the patented Fluid Dynamic Bearing (the quietest bearing with the longest lifespan), but is free of licensing costs for Gelid.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Kingston DataTraveler 2000 Encrypted Flash Drive Review

Kingston is one of the most well known memory and USB flash drive manufacturers around the world. They are constantly keeping up with technology and foreseeing the needs of users. Recently at CES 2016, they announced their latest flash drive, the DataTraveler 2000. The DataTraveler 2000 has several interesting factors that might make it one of the best secure flash drives around. Read on to find out more!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Manjaro 15.12 Xfce - It started almighty but then

This ought to be interesting. Here be a long, thorough review of Manjaro 15.12 Capella 64-bit edition with the Xfce desktop, covering live session, installation in a multi-boot setup with Windows 10 and other Linux distributions on a laptop with UEFI, Secure Boot, and GPT, and post-install use and configuration, including look & feel, network connectivity - Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing and printing, multimedia support - HD video, Flash, MP3, smartphone support - Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone, iPhone, partitioning wizard and associated risks and problems, package management & updates, applications, resource utilization, performance, responsiveness, stability, suspend & resume, hardware support, Touchpad, customization, other changes and observations, issue with Windows not showing in the GRUB menu, subsequent big problems with network freezes and kernel panic, and more. Take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

PC Specialist Octane II Laptop Review

PC Specialist has configured a mid-range Skylake laptop called Octane II that packs enough punch for gaming. You get a choice of GeForce GTX 970M or 980M graphics as well as support for as many as four storage drives and SSDs. Our sample arrived with a Core i5-6600 CPU, 16GB HyperX Impact RAM, GeForce GTX 970M graphics, a 120GB SSD and 1TB hard drive which is fairly close to the base specification.

Read full article @ Kitguru

Rise of the Tomb Raider PC Game analysis

Back in 2013, the Tomb Raider reboot impressed us all on the PC side with its graphical features- the game even went on to become one of our ‘go to‘ benchmarks for GPU reviews. Now, after a brief stint as a Xbox exclusive, the sequel ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ has landed on the PC but does the port live up to the same standard as the original? Let’s find out!

Read full article @ KitGuru

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Performance Analysis

We benchmark Rise of the Tomb Raider on 12 graphics cards, in four resolutions, including SLI and CrossFire. Also included are measurements of VRAM consumption, which is high, but seems extremely well optimized.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Seek Thermal Turns Your Android Phone/Tablet Into A Thermal Imaging Camera

If you have ever wanted a thermal imager to get an idea for the hottest areas of your PC, look how to improve the thermal efficiency of your server room or house, or other purposes, you've likely noticed how thermal imagers are generally quite expensive. A lower-cost solution that's also very versatile is the Seek Compact Thermal, which can attach to your Android smartphone or tablet and turn it into a thermal imaging solution paired with the ease of use of being able to save the captured video or still images to your device.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Synology DiskStation DS1515+ Network Attached Storage Review

What is a NAS? NAS Stands for Network Attached Storage, and it is a device that resides on your network and can have multiple drives in a RAID array. The drives contain folders that can be accessed by all or a few computers on your network depending on the permissions set. Having a NAS on your network offers a few … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Thermaltake Suppressor F31 Midi Tower Review

Although even just a few years back gamers and most people i used to know picked PC cases solely based on their looks and price tag today it seems that quality, available interior space and number of features are just as important (if not more) for the majority of people and since most manufacturers seem to be well aware of that fact it makes sense that lately we see more and more models that focus in quality and features rather than just design. I too feel that the primary goal of any PC case is to be sturdy with a spacious interior and plenty of useful features so it goes without saying that we'll be bringing all of you a lot more such reviews from now on than in the past. In late 2015 Thermaltake released their brand new Suppressor line of towers and after taking a thorough look at the very good F51 we decided to also take a thorough look at its smaller brother the F31.

The beginning of every myth and legend is about dreams and desire: the challenging, creative and combative features of Thermaltake Group create an exciting and fascinating user experience to share with everyone, while allowing users to enter a selfless state in terms of function and potential. Thermaltake Group's 3 main brands: Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2 have been merchandising throughout the world, and have successfully established 6 business footholds in areas such as Europe, America, Oceania, Japan and China, with 95 regional distributors and over 4000 premium retailers. All product planning is orientated by observation of global PC peripheral market and understanding of consumer demands. Thermaltake creates direct contact opportunities with resellers and consumers by participating major global ICT exhibitions and trade shows every year, and develop innovative marketing strategies for the promotions of new products. Meanwhile, Thermaltake incorporates the composite marketing system by making branch offices and regional distributors both the distribution channel and technical support or service center to provide instant support; by maintaining close contact with end users, we manage to strengthen corporate competitiveness and create the momentum for the growth of accomplishments. With its outstanding wisdom and strength Thermaltake Group is recruiting creative talents to build a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology and lifestyle!

Just like its larger brother the Suppressor F31 is quite unique in the family of PC cases by Thermaltake since its primary focus is noise reduction via the use of several pieces of thick sound-dampening material attached on its side plates, top and front (again much like the Deep Silence line by Nanoxia). Now normally this is a door that opens both ways since on one hand you will certainly enjoy your brand new and almost inaudible system but on the other you will probably notice increased temperatures for all of its components (always compared to what you can expect with the top/side sound-dampening panels removed and/or replaced by fans). Again just like its brother however the brand new Suppressor F31 scores high in features since aside being available in two versions (with and without a side window) it also sports a completely tool-free design, removable drive cages, dust-filters, room for up to 9 fans and/or 4 radiators, spacious enough interior that can hold CPU coolers up to 180mm in height and graphics cards up to 278mm in length (420mm with the drive cage removed) and can also be outfitted with a power supply cover which not only provides extra room for cable management but also two extra spots for 2.5" drives. In short the F31 indeed seems to be just a smaller version of the F51 and if that's the case we're already sold.

Read full article @ Nikktech