Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ADATA XPG 64GB SDXC UHS-I Speed Class 3 U3 Memory Card Review
ASUS Maximus VII Ranger Review
Avantree Sacool Stereo Bluetooth Headset Review
Coolermaster, Speedlink and TteSports Budget Headset Head-to-Head Review
Creative Labs Sound Blaster E1
CSO John Byrne claims AMD is leading
Daylight Review
Func HS-260 Gaming Headset Review
GeForce GTX TITAN vs. Radeon R9 280X CrossFire
Hands-on review: HTC One Mini 2 Review
Mario Kart 8 review: One step forward, one step back
MSI Z97I Gaming AC and R9 270X Gaming ITX Review
Palit GTX780 Jetstream 6GB SLi (Ultra HD 4K) Review
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD Review
Seagate Enterprise Class 6TB Hard Drive Review
Seasonic G Series V2 550 W Review
The RAM Disk Guide
Thermaltake eSPORTS Poseidon Z Gaming Keyboard Review

ADATA XPG 64GB SDXC UHS-I Speed Class 3 U3 Memory Card Review

If you are a camera enthusiast that is looking for a new memory card you should be looking closely at the UHS Speed Class symbols on the cards that you are considering purchasing. Back in November 2013, the SD Association came up with a new high-performance specification and speed class symbol that was specifically designed to support a capturing images and video on the most demanding 4K2K video cameras. The new Ultra High Speed (UHS) Speed Class 3 (U3) symbol will indicate products capable of recording 4K2K video and will be exclusively for SDXC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards. Today, Legit Reviews will be looking at the ADATA XPG 64GB SDXC UHS-I U3 memory card. This will be our first chance to check out a UHS-I U3 card!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

ASUS Maximus VII Ranger Review

The Republic of Gamers division has brought many great products to the table of the years and we can’t deny that their success has come about by careful implementation and willingness to appeal to both enthusiasts and gamers. In the motherboard arena each generation of Maximus and Rampage products have always been the topic of discussion on message boards the world-over and today we are looking at one such product which has plenty of anticipation attached to it.

Ranger is ROG’s most aggressive price/performance motherboard in the Intel Z97 lineup. It comes furnished with the ever popular black and red theme and is packed with numerous innovative features. But does such a low price-tag mean there are also plenty of cut-backs? Join us as we explore this exciting new ROG Z97 motherboard.

Read full article @ Vortez

Avantree Sacool Stereo Bluetooth Headset Review

Up for review today I have the Sacool Bluetooth stereo headset from Avantree and it’s aimed at active people as it is lightweight and even splash proof so you could take it running outdoors and not worry about the rain. The headset has multimedia controls right on the left earpiece for you for ease of use and the built-in battery should provide up to six hours of usage either listening to music or talking on the phone or a combination of both. The headset sounds great in theory but I wasn’t exactly happy with it so read on to learn more..

Read full article @ TestFreaks

Coolermaster, Speedlink and TteSports Budget Headset Head-to-Head Review

If you’re on the market for a new headset, chances are you’ve got more than one option on your shopping list, you’ll be looking for the best return on investment and you’ll want to find the headset that is best suited to your needs. Today I’ll be departing from our usual headset review format and showing you three headsets, putting them head-to-head and finding the strengths and weaknesses of each. At my disposal I have the TteSports Cronos, the Speedlink Medua NX and the CM Storm by Coolermaster Ceres 300. They’re all quite varied in terms of features, price and style, but they all have one thing in common, they’re all available for under £60.

The TteSports by Thermaltake Cronos headset is priced around £55 from most major online retailers, making it the most expensive of the collection that I have here today. The Speedlink Medusa can be picked up at most major retailers for around £50, but a little Google-fu will net you a brand new one for around £40 from some of the top eBay sellers making it the second most expensive option and finally we have the CM Storm by Coolermaster Ceres 300, which can be picked up for a very affordable £28. I’m hoping that by covering these three products we can work out if you need to spend more money to get the kind of performance you desire, or perhaps you’ll be able to save yourself some money by downgrading. There is only one way to find out, so let’s put these headsets to the test, but first let’s take a closer look at what you get in the box.

First up we have the TteSports Cronos; in the box you’ll find the headset, a rubber sleeved 4-pole cable (for mobile use), a braided dual 3.5mm + USB power connector cable, a simple user guide and a nice quality protective bag.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Creative Labs Sound Blaster E1

As phones, laptops, and other mobile devices continue to get smaller and smaller we have to compromise in some areas. A great example of this is overall sound quality. When was the last time you were shopping for an ultrabook and even considered what sound card was installed in it. I know when I picked up mine I didn’t give it any thought. Creative Labs recognized this and today is introducing two new mobile Sound Blaster products called the E1 and the E3. Today I have the chance to take a closer look at the E1 and see what it is all about.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

CSO John Byrne claims AMD is leading

“Technology leadership is all about understanding where the market will go next”, claims AMD Chief Sales Officer, John Byrne. “It’s about predicting the future”. KitGuru was fortunate enough to catch up with AMD’s CSO – the driving force behind AMD’s recent sales resurgence. This interview gave us a unique and interesting perspective on how AMD sees itself in 2014 and how it aims to position itself for the future.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Daylight Review

Is it worth running for the light, or shall the darkness consume us? That is hard to say to the point of it being something of a toss-up. I did enjoy playing Daylight, but it never impressed me enough to give it a strong recommendation. The graphics were generally good, but also had issues including the appearance of looking through a prism, occasionally broken geometry, and broken physics. The story is fairly weak and even predictable, but the telling is quite good. Daylight definitely sets its atmosphere well. The gameplay simply lacks the good design I would have liked to see it have, but nothing is too bad to be a real problem. If you enjoy survival horror games that are psychological in their design, then Daylight may be a game for you. Other than that, I am not sure who this may appeal to, as nothing really stands out that much beyond the environment it sets.

Read full article @ OCC

Func HS-260 Gaming Headset Review

As I have recently completed my third year of engineering in university, I have started my sixteen month internship. When I told my friend I was working for an aerospace and defense manufacturing company, the first thing he asked me was, “Yo, want to hook me up with a lightly used, low mileage, accident-free second-hand fighter jet?” He would then ask me whether or not there were heavy security clearances I would go through, with tons of paperwork to fill out. While I laughed and tried to tell him the paperwork was not that much, I also realized this was just the type of reputation the company had. I could continue to insist that the security measures were not really that intense, but it would make zero difference. The fact is impressions are hard to shake; even more so for the negative ones. Whether from first-hand or third-hand experience, if you have had or heard any bad press from anyone, it leaves a damaging impact that will not be easily removed. For example, for the longest while, my dad was adamantly against Ford because of the Pinto and the problematic fuel tank design in the late seventies. He actually did own one for a while, but luckily he sold it before anything explosive occurred. While Ford obviously learned from their mistakes, and have changed from their faulty design, my dad still has not purchased any Ford vehicle since his Pinto. So when Func decided to enter the audio business with the Func HS-260, I did have my doubts. Func has sent us some great products in the past, including the Func KB-460 and the MS-3 Revision 2, and have proved they can produce competitive computer peripherals. However, APH Networks have seen experienced companies take their try at diversifying with less than positive results. As Func’s first headset is marketed to be "candy for your ears", can their start really be this sweet? Or will the sound leave a bitter taste? Read on to find out!

Read full article @ APH Networks

GeForce GTX TITAN vs. Radeon R9 280X CrossFire

Comparisons of two mid-range (roughly) graphics cards with one high-end VGA are almost always good for some really interesting results. Today we're having a look at what two AMD Radeon R9 280X graphics cards can do against one NVIDIA GTX TITAN. The two R9 280X cards are quite a bit cheaper and we're really curious to find out which setup is going to be quicker.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Hands-on review: HTC One Mini 2 Review

Here we go again, the start of the miniaturisation of another set of flagship devices and this time it's HTC who is first to the shrink ray with the confusingly named HTC One Mini 2.Okay, so the name does make sense if you look at last year's HTC One Mini, but considering the Taiwanese firm has backed itself into a bit of a naming corner with the One M8 the One Mini 2 is only adding to the mixed up terminology. To be clear the One Mini 2 is a shrunken version of the excellent HTC One M8 - although the design of the handset gives that away almost instantly. Glance quickly at the One Mini 2 and you'd be forgiven for thinking it's the full blown One M8. It's closer in design to its bigger brother than the original One Mini was to the HTC One. The plastic band which ran round the circumference of the One Mini persists on the One Mini 2, but HTC has done a much better job of hiding it and you're unlikely to notice it unless you look at the top or base of the handset.At these two points the plastic rim widens to cover the whole depth of the One Mini 2, but down each side it's pushed into a thin strip by the metal rear cover which hugs either edge.That brushed metal finish on the rear of the device feels supremely premium and the curved back means the One Mini 2 nestles nicely into the palm while the condensed size makes it a lot easier to hold on to.

Read full article @ TechRadar

Mario Kart 8 review: One step forward, one step back

Great visuals and course design marred by some baffling changes for the worse. It's too easy to dismiss the Mario Kart series as a past-its-prime throwback that's holding Nintendo back, a family friendly nostalgia-fest that becomes more of a pale echo of the company's golden era with each passing year. I'd argue instead that Nintendo has done a great job keeping the franchise fresh over the years, adding enough new ideas and tweaks to the solid core with each release to make Mario Kart a must-play rite of passage for each new piece of Nintendo hardware. Sure, some games in the series have been more revolutionary than others, but Mario Kart games are far from the phoned in, more-of-the-same, semi-annual sequels that they could be.

Mario Kart 8 keeps this pattern going for the, um, eighth time, providing a deceptively solid racer beneath its candy-colored exterior. The changes might be relatively slight this time around, and some of the alterations have bafflingly made things worse, but all in all, this is still the kind of game that gets people to buy Nintendo consoles.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

MSI Z97I Gaming AC and R9 270X Gaming ITX Review

We review, test and benchmark the MSI Z97I Gaming AC motherboard and Radeon R9 270X Gaming ITX - You betta pick up magnifying glass alright as this will be among the smallest fully fetched Z97 motherboard you will lay your eyes on. The Z97I Gaming AC is made on a Mini-ITX form factor, that means you can seat a processor as powerful as the Core i7 4790K into this motherboard that is 17x17 CM. It still has a fully fetched PCIe x16 slot, KillerNIC Gigabit Ethernet, WIFI, USB 3.0 and heck even four SATA 6 Gbps ports. To make things even tastier we pair it with a Radeon R9 270X Gaming ITX graphics card. And the combination is just really good.

Intel released their series 9 chipsets, amongst them will be low-end and high-end desktop solutions. For the consumers and readers of Guru3D, H97 and Z97 will be the two most interesting ones. For the HTPC end of things H97 is the most appealing as tweaking options are stripped away with a lower price-tag. For the more hardcore gamers and PC aficionados, the Z97 is the most interesting. Z97 by itself as a chipset is nothing special. HOWEVER we have plenty to look at as the motherboard manufacturers went totally nuts and started redesigning their motherboards, added new features and made them extraordinarily cool. You'll spot new redesigns build on the DNA of Z87 yet improved massively. Cool looks, features like AC WIFI, M2 SSDs and Sata Express will bring some very interesting features onto the market. So if (at the time) you didn't upgrade to Z87, now might be a good time.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Palit GTX780 Jetstream 6GB SLi (Ultra HD 4K) Review

Nvidia have always said that the GTX Titan and GTX Titan Black graphics cards were never released to target the gaming audience, however that hasn’t stopped demanding enthusiast gamers buying them by the bucket load. As the GTX780 Ti is ‘only’ equipped with 3GB of GDDR5 memory the move to ‘Titan gaming’ has been the only way for a wealthy Nvidia user to double the memory count. If you want to game at Ultra HD 4K resolution – or across multiple screens then the 6GB of GDDR5 makes sense. Nvidia knew there was a gap and have recently been working with their partners to double the memory count on the older non TI GTX780.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD Review

Samsung’s 840 Pro is hardly a new drive but it also happens to be one of the most highly regarded SSDs currently available. The reason for this is simple: it’s relatively inexpensive, offers awesome performance and comes with a 5 year warranty. It’s also been thoroughly reviewed by other publications but we’ve decided to add it to our charts despite some reservations.

We’ve been holding off highlighting Samsung’s SSD’s on the pages of Hardware Canucks for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Samsung’s storage division was turned over to Seagate back in 2011 which resulted in a convoluted RMA process for anyone that purchased a Samsung SSD. While folks south of the border had the situation quickly resolved, since Samsung never “officially” sold SSDs here in Canada prior to 2013, many of our readers were SOL when it came to support for their drives. With that in mind, we chose not to support Seagate’s Samsung arm until that situation was resolved since in good conscience we couldn’t recommend a storage device that shipped without a manufacturer-backed warranty to the majority of our readers. The situation has now changed a bit since Canadian customers can now go through Total Tech Solutions (Samsung’s Canadian RMA partner) for warranty support. The process isn’t straightforward but replacing a dead drive is now a lot easier.

With all of that being said, let’s get back to the 840 Pro since even now, more than a year after its initial release, other manufacturers are still struggling to match what it offers. By combining their versatile fourth generation MDX controller with Toggle Mode 2.0 NAND, Samsung changed the very landscape of the marketplace and continue to do so long after the Pro was first introduced. Back then, competitors who were 'getting by' with SandForce controller based drives had to rethink their strategy and are still scrambling to release comparably performing models.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Seagate Enterprise Class 6TB Hard Drive Review

Recently Seagate began really pushing the high end of the storage market again with the launch of their Enterprise Capacity 3.5 v4 range. With models at 5TB and 6TB we can create some pretty spectacular storage systems but they are more than just that. Seagate have also tuned them for high performance... so massive capacity and speeds quoted over 200MB/s read/write from a single mechanical drive? Today we have the 6TB version attached to our system, let's see if it can live up to the claims.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

Seasonic G Series V2 550 W Review

Seasonic decided to silently update their G-550 model to add Haswell support. The company did not change the model number, but did add a Haswell-ready badge to the box. The G-550 is an affordable product for users on a tight budget who, want a reliable PSU with great performance for a mid-level system.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

The RAM Disk Guide

A RAM disk (also known as RAM drive or virtual RAM drive) turns RAM into a logical disk drive for temporary storage purposes. It can come in the form of a software that converts a portion of regular computer memory into a drive, or an actual physical device that uses RAM as a storage medium. Both offer a tremendous boost in storage speeds of several magnitudes over the hard disk drive.

The RAM disk has been around since the 1980s, but it has never been popular due to the high cost of computer memory. It is now making a comeback, partly because RAM is now cheap and plentiful and partly because solid state drives (SSDs) are fast replacing hard disk drives as the storage medium of choice, not only in notebooks but also in desktops where they serve as boot drives.

SSDs are not only much faster than hard disk drives, they are silent and virtually impervious to vibration and shock. The downside though is their limited lifespan, especially consumer-grade SSDs which use MLC flash memory that last only 5,000 program/erase cycles. That's where the RAM disk comes in - it allows the user to reduce wear and tear on the SSD by shifting some of the work to it.

Read full article @ TechARP

Thermaltake eSPORTS Poseidon Z Gaming Keyboard Review

Thermaltake has a new gaming keyboard to offer to the market and not just a standard keyboard. The new Thermaltake eSPORTS Poseidon Z keyboard is mechanical and fully backlit.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc