Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD readies Zen’s server software
Apacer Z280 240GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive Review
Black Friday VR Headset Review
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Cooler Master's MasterLiquid Pro 240 and Pro 280 CPU coolers reviewed
CRYORIG A40 Ultimate
Hitman First Season Review
HP Z2 Mini Workstation revealed at Autodesk University event
Kingston Cloud Stinger Review
Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Review
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 1 Terabyte NVMe SSD Review
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD Review (250GB/1TB)
Samsung 960 EVO Review
Samsung SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2 Review: Ultra Fast, Affordable Storage
Samsung SSD 960 EVO Review – 250GB and 1TB NVMe M.2 Drives Tested
Seagate intros Backup Plus 5TB mobile drives
The Best Laptops: Gaming, Business, Ultraportable and More
The Samsung 960 EVO (1TB) Review
Top 10 Best Android Launchers In 2017
Watch Dogs 2 Review

AMD readies Zen’s server software

The software is designed to help put Zen under the bonnet of high-performing servers to turn GPUs and CPU combos into servers. If it all pays off AMD could be back in the server market after losing it totally to Chipzilla.
ROCm provides a base for the company to build GPUs for large-scale servers. It is a low-level programming framework like Nvidia's CUDA. But it's open source and can work with a wide range of CPU architectures like ARM, Power, and x86.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

Apacer Z280 240GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive Review

The M.2 form factor was originally called the Next Generation Form factor (NGFF) for a good reason and it is without a doubt also my personal favourite form factor. Today I'm taking a closer look at Apacer's Z280 solid state drive which is just such an M.2 2280 size drive that also uses the latest NVMe standard for the best performance in your system.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Black Friday VR Headset Review

Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets are just about everywhere now in sizes, shapes, styles, materials and price points. They provide a fully immersive virtual reality experience by blocking out the real world and recreating a virtual world through sensory inputs.

Read full article @ DailyTech

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Not long ago we checked out Cooler Master’s newest entry in the AiO cooler segment, the MasterLiquid Pro 240. It was a really nice cooler with a brand new unique dual chamber pump design that performed admirably in the highly competitive 240mm radiator category. While truly a highly polished product with a really great design aesthetic, the Pro 240 may not be everything you are looking for as far as performance is concerned. If you find yourself thinking along those lines perhaps this next product from Cooler Master is for you? Today we’ll be taking a close look at the bigger brother to the Pro 240, Cooler Master’s absolutely newest product, the MasterLiquid Pro 280! This AiO is nearly identical to the Pro 240 but comes equipped with a 25% larger 280mm radiator. Follow along as we check this brute out and see how much of cooling punch it packs.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Cooler Master's MasterLiquid Pro 240 and Pro 280 CPU coolers reviewed

Cooler Master's MasterLiquid Pro 240 and MasterLiquid Pro 280 CPU coolers bring fresh thinking to nearly every part of the closed-loop liquid cooler. We put them on the bench to see if those new ideas translate into chillier CPUs.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

CRYORIG A40 Ultimate

CRYORIG seeks to impress with the A40 Ultimate. Utilizing a unique design and features such as its hybrid airflow fan, it not only cools the CPU but other components as well. At first glance it is indeed much the same yet different enough to stand out in an otherwise crowded market.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Hitman First Season Review

Now that I have covered all of the episodes briefly, I think it makes sense to rank them based on how I liked them. The top two are Episode 2 – Sapienza and Episode 6 – Hokkaido. Episode 2 features a wonderful map with plenty of options for one to creatively complete their mission while Episode 6 has a good map but it is more the challenge of starting with nothing that I like. I do not know which I would put first and second, but these are definitely the top two for me. Third is Episode 3 – Marrakesh thanks to its map complexity and opportunities. It is just not quite on the same level of enjoyment for me as the top two episodes I gave above, but is not far away either. Obviously this leaves Episodes 4 and 5 as the bottom two, and I think I will put Episode 4 at the bottom. Neither of these are poor or bad missions, but I simply enjoy the others more. The reason I put Episode 5 above Episode 4 is that I just found the challenges it presented more interesting. I remember playing it and trying to avoid being caught while approaching my target. Remembering Episode 4 brings to mind getting lost in the hotel and trying to figure out how to get back to a disguise I need. It was still fun to play and I will very likely play it more after I finish up this review, but the others come first to me.

Read full article @ OCC

HP Z2 Mini Workstation revealed at Autodesk University event

"Industry's first-ever mini workstation," measures just 21.5 x 21.5 x 5.8cm. Earlier today we saw a diminutive computer which MSI claimed to be the world's smallest VR Ready gaming PC, the MSI Trident. Now here's another mini-marvel but this time aimed at the Workstation/CAD market, the HP Z2 Mini. HP's new octagonal shaped computer is said to pack the "performance of a traditional Workstation tower in a size that's 90 per cent smaller".

Talking up the achievement Gwen Coble, director of HP Inc's Workstations business in EMEA, said "HP redefined the workstation in 2009 with the introduction of the HP Z series, and now once again is disrupting the category with the new HP Z2 Mini Workstation - the ultimate combination of space efficiency, elegance and power for our customers and partners."

Read full article @ Hexus

Kingston Cloud Stinger Review

The HyperX name was created back in 2002 as a branch of high end products from Kingston Technology. Meanwhile HyperX is an individual brand at Kingston and it's being marketed as that. After the HyperX Cloud series, the company is now ready to show a new, cheaper headset which is aimed at all those who are on a tight budget.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Review

Announced at the same time as the high-end SSD 960 PRO, but arriving a month later, the newly-launched SSD 960 EVO is Samsung’s attempt to push the M.2 PCIe NVMe format SSD into the mainstream market. The EVO uses the same Polaris controller as the 960 PRO but combines it with Samsung’s 3rd Generation 48-layer 3-bit (TLC) V-NAND compared with the 2-bit MLC V-NAND used by the PRO.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Samsung 960 EVO M.2 1 Terabyte NVMe SSD Review

Precisely one month after the 960 Pro release Samsung releases the 960 EVO. The more wallet friendly M.2. SSD promises to be roughly as fast and versatile as the Pro model, a product once again based on a Polaris based controller. These new M.2 EVO and PRO units can now be purchased in volume sizes up-to 1 TB and use the latest iteration of the nvm express (NVME) 1.2 protocol which is even faster anno 2016. NVMe Storage technology is advancing with extremely fast paces and steps. And correct, you read that right as the EVO is based on a Samsung Polaris controller, not to be confused with anything from AMD, of course. The new 960 EVO has been fitted with 48-layer MLC 3-bit per cell (TLC written) NAND. Today we will focus on that new EVO model, we have received a 1TB model for testing. The product is only slightly slower compared to the PRO model and capable of sequential read performance of 3,200 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 1,900 MB/s. Alongside this 960 EVO release, Samsung now also also offers a dedicated Samsung NVMe Driver 2.0, for maximal compatibility and performance.

Samsung is to release the new 960 EVO model in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB volume sizes. Performance wise you'll get a smile on your face, it these units are tagged with sequential transfer rates of over 3200 MB/s reads, with up to 1900 MB/s writes; up-to 380,000 IOPS 4K random-read, and up to 360,000 IOPS 4K random-write. The precise performance values differ per model / volume size though, we'll discuss and show you that on the next page. The 960 series is available in an M.2 (NGFF-2280) form factor. These units obviously will require PCI-Express 3.0 with x4 lanes as the SSDs are using the latest iteration of the NVMe protocol. The Samsung 960 EVO still offers plenty of endurance, depending on volume site 400 Terabytes written (TBW), for the 1 TB capacity, half that for the 500 GB version and again half of that for the 250 GB model. The EVO series will receive a three year warranty. These new M.2 units use the NVMe protocol and that means storage technology at hyper fast speeds while remaining competitive in pricing. The 1024 GB model we test today is capable of passing that 3GB/s marker for reads and close to 2000 MB/second sequential on writes. The Samsung 960 EVO SSD is Samsung’s last generation consumer-ready Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology (48 layers/128 Gb & stacked). Storage technology keeps advancing at the fast pace it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply excellent as you can reach say 450 MB/s to 500 MB/sec on SATA3 which is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, over the past year, NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD Review (250GB/1TB)

Last month we took a look at the best performing SSD, Samsung's 960 PRO. Packed with Samsung's latest MLC V-NAND, new Polaris controller, and put together with their engineering expertise, it easily sped off to the top of our charts. Not only that, but it did so without even utilizing their latest NVMe 2.0 driver. The 960 Pro is the enthusiast class SSD to get if you are looking for the best of the best. With that being said, Samsung has also released a new mainstream SSD which, based on the spec sheet, looks like it packs quite the punch. It is the Samsung 960 EVO (http://thessdreview.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=37669ea4e8&e=1230c2ab07) and it could be the mainstream SSD to buy if you are looking for top performance for a cheaper cost.

We have been waiting to get our hands on it for over a month now. Luckily today, we finally get to take a closer look at the 960 Pro's little brother. With it, we don't only get a chance to take a look at how it performs, but also how it performs with Samsung's latest NVMe 2.0 driver. So, how will Samsung's latest TLC V-NAND based M.2 NMVe, PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD perform? Can it come close to its bigger bother in testing? Or will it be hidden in shadow? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Samsung 960 EVO Review

Soon after the 960 PRO release, Samsung are back with a cheaper alternative in the 960 EVO. Like its sibling the EVO uses Samsung's new Polaris Controller and the companies 3rd generation V-NAND.

Read full article @ Vortez

Samsung SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2 Review: Ultra Fast, Affordable Storage

When Samsung initially announced the SSD 960 PRO and SSD 960 EVO NVMe drives a few months back, we were eager to get our hands on them for some in-house testing. Their specifications, which included transfer speeds in excess of 3.2GB/s, were among the best we’d seen to date for consumer-class M.2-based solid state drives. Last month, when we were able to dig into the flagship Samsung SSD 960 PRO, we came away impressed. So impressed, that we gave the drive an Editor’s Choice award.

Today, we get to take a close look at the more affordable Samsung SSD 960 EVO. Like the SSD 960 PRO, the EVO is packing Samsung’s latest 5-core Polaris controller, but it features 3rd-gen 3-bit MLC V-NAND flash memory and a newly revamped version of TurboWrite. Though the SSD 960 EVO family’s pricing places it firmly in the mainstream segment for NVMe-based solid state drives, its specifications should appeal to performance enthusiasts...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Samsung SSD 960 EVO Review – 250GB and 1TB NVMe M.2 Drives Tested

If the Samsung SSD 960 PRO series that we looked at last month was too expensive for you, sit back and take a look at the Samsung SSD 960 EVO series. The Samsung SSD 960 PRO was aimed at enthusiasts that want the best storage drive possible, while the Samsung SSD 960 EVO is aimed at the masses that are looking for good performance without breaking the bank. The Samsung 960 EVO is a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD that comes in a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor. It is currently available in three capacities: 250GB ($129.99), 500GB ($249.99), and 1TB ($479.99). Each of the drives are capable of 3,200 MB/s sequential read while the sequential write performance varies and tops out at up to 1,900 MB/s....

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Seagate intros Backup Plus 5TB mobile drives

Based upon the new BarraCuda internal drives with 2.5-inch 1TB platter technology. Storage specialist Seagate has introduced what it claims to be the "world's largest capacity mobile drive". The Backup Plus Portable 5TB drive is based upon one of the new BarraCuda mobile internal drive (scroll down linked page) with 2.5-inch 1TB platter technology, introduced a month ago.

Seagate reckons the new Backup Plus 5TB mobile drives offer the best of both worlds; desktop sized storage in a portable bus-powered form factor. You connect these drives to your computer via USB 3.0 (45cm USB 3.0 cable included) but it is backwards compatible with the slower USB 2.0 standard. With a PC you can enjoy plug and play functionality while Mac users can use NTFS for Mac driver software (included) to get the benefit of platform interchangeability.

Read full article @ Hexus

The Best Laptops: Gaming, Business, Ultraportable and More

When choosing the right laptop it all comes down to what you are willing to spend and what you plan to use it for. After looking this year's releases and analyzing hundreds of expert and user reviews, we bring you the best of the best in a handful of popular categories: ultraportables, gaming, workstations and more.

Read full article @ TechSpot

The Samsung 960 EVO (1TB) Review

Last month the Samsung 960 Pro broke most of the performance records for a consumer SSD and often by a surprisingly large margin. But as impressive as it was to see the combination of high capacity and high performance in such a small package, the 2TB 960 Pro we reviewed is too expensive to be a realistic option for most enthusiasts. So enter the Samsung 960 EVO. With the same powerful SSD controller used on the 960 Pro but much cheaper TLC 3D NAND, the 960 EVO is far more affordable but promises similar peak performance. Despite being Samsungs low-end M.2 PCIe option, the 960 EVO is aiming to outperform last years 950 Pro and the current flagship PCIe SSDs from Samsungs competitors.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Top 10 Best Android Launchers In 2017

Top 10 launchers for android or best android launchers 2017. Know the comparison between top 10 best launcher for android 2017 on HackOurLives.

Read full article @ HackOurLives

Watch Dogs 2 Review

Watch Dogs 2 isn’t perfect, but it’s smart, entertaining and has forged a personality of its own. Setting a videogame in the murky world of hacking is quite brave in this day and age: real-life hackers, one suspects, wouldn’t constitute the most sympathetic and likable of characters.

So, with Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft has taken a fantasy approach which doesn’t skimp on the comedy and requires a fair amount of disbelief-suspension.

Read full article @ TechRadar