Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Acer Predator XB270HU G-Sync Display Review
ADATA Premier SP550 240GB Solid State Drive Review
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 120 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Arq Cloud Backup for Mac and PC
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hybrid Gaming Review
EVGA introduces Z170 Classified K motherboard
Fallout 4 amazes and annoys
G.SKILL RIPJAWS KM780 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC
Netgear Nighthawk X8 R8500 AC5300 WiFi Router Review: Amplified AC
Ozone Strike Pro Review
Patriot Viper V560 Mouse Review
Synology DiskStation DS416 4-bay High-Performance NAS Review
The Case Mods of CES 2016
Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 6TB Hard Drive Review

Acer Predator XB270HU G-Sync Display Review

Acer’s XB270HU is a 27-inch G-Sync display with a bright IPS panel. It supports a native WQHD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 and a refresh rate of 144Hz, with Nvidia’s ULMB technology to boot, rounding off an impressive specification that puts it directly in competition with high-end adaptive-sync gaming displays from other manufacturers.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ADATA Premier SP550 240GB Solid State Drive Review

I’ve had the pleasure to review several new drives with triple-level-cell (TLC) NAND recently and today it is time to take a closer look at ADATA’s Premier SP550 solid state drive. The drive is equipped with said TLC flash and an SMI controller to provide an affordable performance upgrade. The ADATA Premier SP550 is available in capacities from 120GB and all the way up to 960GB, I’m however taking a closer look at the 256GB model today.

Let us start with the basics. The ADATA Premier SP550 is a 2.5-inch solid state drive with a 7mm height that makes it a perfect fit for ultrabooks. ADATA also packed a drive spacer along for notebooks that require a 9.5mm drive. This makes it suitable for almost any system, mobile or stationary.

Read full article @ eTeknix

ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 120 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

If you've been reading our news then you probably know that a few hours ago EK Waterblocks announced a recall of their EK-XLC Predator 240/360 Pre-filled CPU Xpandable Liquid Coolers since according to their stats 1 out 10 showed signs of leakage due to faulty O-Rings. We know it will not be easy for EKWB to recall all these units but what really matters is that they didn't try to sweep this issue under the rag so a big bravo to them for this. Leaving out such unfortunate and rare incidents however AIO liquid CPU coolers are not only very safe and have gone a long way since their initial introduction in the market roughly 7 years ago but they are also considered especially ideal for use in small cases with not so good airflow levels. ARCTIC is one of the very first companies to enter the PC cooling market back in 2001 (back then it was Arctic Cooling) and perhaps the only manufacturer that has been providing air and liquid GPU cooling solutions to a large number of graphics cards manufacturers. Today with us however we have their latest AIO Liquid CPU Cooler for overclockers called the Liquid Freezer 120.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Arq Cloud Backup for Mac and PC

Between us, I have been procrastinating. Unwilling to take the final step towards a truly comprehensive data protection plan. The first two stages (multiple copies, multiple formats) have been in place for years. Leveraging RAID1 (redundancy), multiple hard disk drives (backup), and DVD archival (format shift) but taking my important data off premises has been a sticking point because of trust, and simplicity. Frankly, I just do not have enough faith in any cloud storage provider’s security, they are all big juicy targets and the risk of a breach just seems more likely (cough, iCloud) than the type of event that would wipe away all of my home storage. Fortunately though, I recently found a solution that I am comfortable with – something that protects the data itself, and significantly reduces the risk of data leakage if there is a breach.

Read full article @ Missing Remote

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hybrid Gaming Review

New look, same speed for EVGA's liquid-cooled GTX 980 Ti.

Read full article @ Hexus

EVGA introduces Z170 Classified K motherboard

The 'K' stands for Killer Ethernet and this motherboard is aimed at "the hardcore gamer".

Read full article @ Hexus

Fallout 4 amazes and annoys

We took a months-long trip through Fallout 4's wasteland. Here's what we came back with.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

G.SKILL RIPJAWS KM780 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

The KM780 RGB keyboard can be easily paired with the MX780 gaming mouse thanks to the unified software which permits easy switching between the two for easy configuration. The new keyboard from G.SKILL employs one of the most recent switches from Cherry, the MX Brown RGB which permits a more uniform lighting across the keyboard thanks to the semi-transparent housing and we also get the quality and durability of the well-known brand. While other manufacturers have decided to include all extra functions along with the F-keys, G.SKILL saw fit to use separate buttons on top, for an easier access. As with other high-end keyboards, we do get a brushed aluminum top cover and as a novelty item the manufacturer has also used a steel bar around the chassis, which can be used for attaching the accessory box or for working with the cable router.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC

Over the last few years small builds have been becoming more and more popular. Both for LAN rigs like we have been using for a long time, but even for main PCs. This is partially due to more parts being available but mostly some people are tired of dealing with huge heavy cases, especially when you can do nearly anything you want in the Mini-ITX form factor. Late this fall I started thinking about a new LAN rig, maybe even another iteration of our LunchBox series, before I did that though I really needed to check out the new Z170 boards. That leads me to today where I’m going to check out MSI’s gaming focused Mini-ITX board, the Z170I Gaming Pro AC. I’ve used a few of MSI’s ITX boards in builds before and I’m excited to see what this one has to offer.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Netgear Nighthawk X8 R8500 AC5300 WiFi Router Review: Amplified AC

With the first generation of wireless AC routers in our rearview, we now turn to the second generation, which is dubbed "Wave 2" with the AC5300 moniker, and the first router out of the gate (for us at least) is the Netgear Nighthawk X8 AC5300. Instead of using a 3x3 configuration with six antennae, this router takes it to the next level with a 4x4 configuration, with four internal antennae and four Active external antennae, each with their own blue LEDs to signal their active state. This means the amplifiers for the antennae are on the antennae itself rather than down on the main board, helping to boost the signal without crosstalk or signal loss associated with modern PCB circuitry. Each 5GHz radio is able to broadcast at 2.1Gbps compared to 1,300Gbps on Gen 1 devices, and the bandwidth on the 2.4GHz channel is also increased from 600Mb/s on Gen 1 devices to 1GB/s. When you take both 5GHz channels at 2,100Gb/s and add it to the 1000Gb/s on the 2.4GHz channel, you end up with a number around 5,300Gb/s, hence the branding...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Ozone Strike Pro Review

With the Strike Pro, Ozone offers a gaming keyboard with mechanical switches and standard layout. As with all other high-end gaming keyobards these days also this one features a backlight and there are different macro modes. Apart from that Ozone chose to use on this keyboard very solid plastic which adds a lot to stability and the overall feel.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Patriot Viper V560 Mouse Review

Patriot is a company known for its memory and mobile products, and has just recently started selling peripherals. The V560 is the first-ever mouse released under the Patriot Viper brand, and it continues the trend of excellent design set by its first-ever headset.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Synology DiskStation DS416 4-bay High-Performance NAS Review

I’ve taken a look at quite a few 2-bay NAS units lately and while they already allow for an impressive 16TB raw storage, that might not be enough for everyone. Today I’m taking Synology’s DiskStation DS416, a 4-bay feature-rich and high-performance NAS server, for a spin on my test bench. The Synology DiskStation DS416 is built around an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-212 32-bit dual-core CPU with 1.4GHz, floating point unit, and hardware encryption engine. The CPU is backed by 1GB DDR3 memory that sadly isn’t upgradable.

The DS416 is a full-fledged NAS that comes with everything you’d want from a performance system. It features dual Gigabit Ethernet network that supports all types of failover and link aggregation, allowing you to keep your system connected under heavier load or when one connection should fail. The DS416 also features three USB 3.0 ports where one of them is conveniently placed on the front of the NAS for easy access.

Read full article @ eTeknix

The Case Mods of CES 2016

CES is a place where many companies show off their latest products. What better way to show off these products than inside of a badass case mod! This year we saw some pretty awesome builds, case mods, and a few scratch builds at the show. Some of the builds we have actually featured in our Case Mod Friday section so it was cool to see them in person! Enjoy our gallery of the Case Mods of CES 2016!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 6TB Hard Drive Review

While APH Networks is probably not the first -- or even the second, third, or fourth -- website to visit if you are looking for relationship advice, I think we had some great points posted in the opening of my Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB review back in June 2014. Since the Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 6TB we are reviewing today is an improved and larger capacity version of the WD40EFRX as mentioned, what better thing is there to do than to post an updated version of our excellent relationship advice in this review introduction? Recently, I was talking to my fellow editor Aaron Lai about what to look for in a person, and we ended up deriving what we call the "LPSE formula" (By the way, for future reference, APH Networks is the first place where this term first appeared). "LPSE", in this context, stands for "looks", "personality", "spirituality", and "emotional appeal", in no particular order. I am not going to go into elaborate detail into what each term mean, since they should be quite self-explanatory. But the point is, all of these elements are important in a person you are looking to be in a relationship with, no matter how subjective it may be to you. If one or more of these criteria score poorly, your best bet is to look for someone else instead. As it turns out, LPSE can also be applied to evaluate what products we buy, if we redefine the acronym. LPSE, in this context, will then be "looks", "price", "speed", and "efficiency", in no particular order. Back in 2014, we gave the WD40EFRX an APH Recommended, one of our most prestigious awards, because it was well-rounded LPSE-wise. Well, maybe except for looks, which did not matter, since it was an internal hard drive. Today, we will take a look at the WD60EFRX, which is the 6TB model with the latest NASware 3.0 firmware. Will it take home another APH Recommended? Read on to find out how it fared! Because, you know, LPSE.

Read full article @ APH Networks