Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including The SSD Endurance Experiment: 200TB update, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone Review, ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional Review, QNAP TurboNAS TS-420 NAS Server, and AMD Radeon R9 290X vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan at 4K



The SSD Endurance Experiment: 200TB update @ The Tech Report

We're in the process of hammering six SSDs with an unrelenting torrent of writes to see what happens as the flash wears out. Today, we check in on the drives after 200TB of writes.

Read more: The SSD Endurance Experiment: 200TB update @ The Tech Report

Antec HCG-750W PSU @ Rbmods

We have not reviewed power supplies for awhile but today it’s once again time for it.
We are looking at Antecs latest creation that is part of the “Current gamer” series. We received the 750W version of the PSU and are going to be loading it as much as we can to see the performance.

Read more: Antec HCG-750W PSU @ Rbmods

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Since the release of the Note 2 Samsung have continued to enhance the Galaxy range with the S4, increasing the specification of their flagship model and enhancing the software features too. With that phone well established in the market it was time to refresh the Note series and today that is the focus of our review, the Galaxy Note 3.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Review @ OCC

So there you have it, another custom built card from Sapphire that takes what AMD has to offer and bring it kicking and screaming to reach another performance plateau. Considering that the R9 280X Toxic is built upon the aging Tahiti XT core, the performance squeezed from this card allows it to play well above its price point of $349. Not to draw the wrong conclusion, but this card does what last year's HD 7970 6GB Toxic Edition card did and does just about everything better when you look at gaming performance and to some degree power consumption. Let's start with the gaming performance of the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic. Throughout the resolutions tested, the card was markedly better than the HD 7970 in every single test while delivering performance on par with or better than the GTX 770, again through each test. Depending on the test the R9 280X Toxic could deliver FPS results within a couple FPS of the GTX 780, which costs better than $300 more in most cases

Read more: Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Review @ OCC

ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional Review @ Hardware Canucks

ASRock may have started out from humble beginnings by offering some oddball, relatively low quality motherboards but that ship has since been turned around. Over the last three years to so, they have quickly gained the respect of PC enthusiasts by offering a blend of features and performance at a price that is usually more palatable than the competition. The latest Fatal1ty Z87 Professional exemplifies many of these characteristics and while it is priced at $250, it is still a relatively good deal compared many other ‘gaming’ orientated motherboards.

While the Fatal1ty brand has seen its share of ups and –mainly- downs the ASRock / Fatal1ty business relationship has proven to be rather successful for everyone. Every generation ASRock releases a Fatal1ty motherboard and every generation they get better, more feature rich and as a result have become quite successful. This success is largely based on the fact that ASRock knows precisely what this particular corner of the market is looking for: stability, performance, ease of overclocking, aesthetics, and built in features which can give gamers an edge over the competition. Most importantly, price may only be of secondary concern, but value is very important to anyone looking for this particular class of motherboard. Consumers have no qualms with paying more upfront as long it proves to be a better long-term investment.

Read more: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional Review @ Hardware Canucks

be quiet! PowerZone 1000W @ PureOverclock

be quiet! may not be a very well known name in North America, but in the European market, and particularly in Germany, it’s an entirely different story; they’re industry heavyweights. With an established reputation in the power supply market, the company is looking to expand further west, particularly in North America, and from what we’ve seen so far with their products, they appear to be on the right track.

We came away impressed with a couple previous be quiet! power supplies we’ve tested, and today we’re focusing on a power supply that’s a bit more robust in its goals, looking at the kilowatt range of the market and targeted to enthusiasts and gamers who don’t want to compromise quality.

Read more: be quiet! PowerZone 1000W @ PureOverclock

Football Manager 2014 (PC) Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

As with many other yearly refreshes (such as FIFA, F1, etc.) those who have the last version might not necessarily get the maximum value from this edition but anyone on 2012 or earlier will see significant advances.

Read more: Football Manager 2014 (PC) Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

NZXT Source 530 Full Tower Case Review @ HiTech Legion

I look forward to a time when buildings and vehicles are built with seamlessly integrated computers. The kind of things you might find in Star Trek where perhaps you touch a button on your phone and talk to your car as you leave a building, you tell the car to start the engine (hopefully no longer fueled by gasoline) and the car starts the heater or air conditioning to get the vehicle comfortable for you before you get in. Or maybe one step further and the car actually pulls around to the exit of the building to pick you up. For now, we seem to not be much closer to those ideas than we were when Star Trek was new.

Sure, we have self-driving Google cars and voice activated computer interfaces, like Siri, but people like to be in control, even when they are actually out of control. The only accident the Google car has ever been in was while a person drove it. So for now, we are relegated to building ever larger and more complex computer systems for work and for play. However, not all computers need to be huge or massively overstated to be incredibly effective. I, for one, appreciate the simple designs that are beginning to be popular (again) in custom PC builds.

Read more: NZXT Source 530 Full Tower Case Review @ HiTech Legion

QNAP TurboNAS TS-420 NAS Server @ NikKTech

As the popularity of NAS devices (or NAS servers as we like to call them) keeps increasing every day naturally many of you expect from us to focus in getting some of the latest models to hit the market from all the major players for testing purposes. Well lately we've seen the introduction of not only expensive models designed and manufactured by both old and new companies with business customers as their main target audience but also low and mid-end ones developed mostly for house and office use. That being said with the current state of HDD prices it really doesn't come as a surprise to see that consumers are not as interested in single bay models as they are in dual and quad ones and who can blame them since having at least one more available bay for future expansion is the obvious choice. So for the past two weeks we've been putting the latest quad bay NAS servers to hit the market by QNAP the TurboNAS TS-420 through rigorous testing to see if it has what it takes to win the hearts of home and office users.

Read more: QNAP TurboNAS TS-420 NAS Server @ NikKTech

Mionix Avior 8200 Gaming Mouse Review @ Madshrimps

Mionix have recently introduced their Avior 8200 high-end mouse which sports a fine-tuned Avago 9800 sensor and can jump through DPI values thanks to the three programmable steps. It is ambidextrous and features a soft-touch coating which is comfortable during long gaming sessions.

Read more: Mionix Avior 8200 Gaming Mouse Review @ Madshrimps

Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Na'Vi Limited Edition SSD Review @ Funky Kit

Couple of days ago we were reviewing Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1600 Na'Vi Limited Edition memory. Now it's time to present another Na'Vi Limited Edition product which is HyperX 3K 240GB SSD so Kingston's highest SSD series.

Let's take a closer look at this new and limited edition product in our review.

Read more: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Na'Vi Limited Edition SSD Review @ Funky Kit

AMD Radeon R9 290X vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan at 4K @ Hexus

Just yesterday, we found out that AMD's new champion graphics card, the $549 Radeon R9 290X, gave Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan a very good run for its money. Heck, in some games it took the Titan's dinner money and gave it a cheeky slap into the financial bargain.

Taken over the results from benchmarks conducted at a tasty 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution and evaluated over six modern games, the R9 290X has the slightest of edges over the Titan. This is good news for consumers as there's now real choice in every segment of the discrete graphics-card market.

Using our high/ultra-quality settings does little to dampen the sheer horsepower evident on both sides of the graphics fence. Sure, Crysis 3 runs a little slow, but when does it not, and other games tend to average 60fps at 2,560x1,440. AMD also proclaims the R9 290X to be a very good fit for 4K panels sporting a native resolution of 3,840x2,160.

Read more: AMD Radeon R9 290X vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan at 4K @ Hexus

Cooler Master N600 Chassis Review @ Funky Kit

Computer chassis have really evolved over the generations just as much as other computer components. I remember the chassis (way back when I was just a youngling) that featured the super boring beige color and were constructed with 50 pounds of steel. I am so glad those days are ancient history. In the modern era, chassis come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and form factors. As modding has become a huge staple with the enthusiast community, manufacturers have taken note and integrated more and more of those popular features in their chassis.

Read more: Cooler Master N600 Chassis Review @ Funky Kit

Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H LGA 1150 Motherboard @ Custom PC Review

With the release of Intel’s latest Z87 chipset and their accompanying Haswell parts, many motherboard manufacturers are scurrying to put out their latest generation of motherboards and with some of the features we’ve seen from various vendors this generation, competition is fiercer than ever. Now when it comes to the enthusiast market, I think each motherboard manufacturer’s $150, $200, and flagship motherboards are arguably the most important of the bunch.

The $150 price category is particularly important because price conscious enthusiasts want a board that has a certain set of base features, but aren’t necessarily interested in the features offered by higher end, higher priced motherboards. The $200 category on the other hand is for those enthusiasts with a couple more bucks to spare, enjoy tweaking and tinkering with their hardware, and most importantly are interested in having a more feature rich motherboard that allow them to throw in additional storage and additional expansion cards down the line. Finally, there’s also the flagship motherboards that aren’t necessarily the best sellers, but really show the enthusiast market what a motherboard manufacturer is capable of accomplishing when all cost factors are removed.

Read more: Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H LGA 1150 Motherboard @ Custom PC Review

BBM for Android and iOS review @ The Inquirer

A good app, but late to the party     

Read more: BBM for Android and iOS review @ The Inquirer