Here a roundup of todays review's and articles:

ASUS Designo MX27AQ WQHD Monitor Review
Core i7-5960X CPU Review
DirectX 12 Performance Preview, Part 3: Star Swarm & Intel's iGPUs
Divoom Voombox Outdoor Rugged Bluetooth Speaker Review
February 2015 System Guide
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming Video Card Review
Gigabyte P35K v3 Review
Mac OS X Isn’t Safe Anymore: The Crapware / Malware Epidemic Has Begun
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 review: ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Inno3D, MSI and Zotac put to the test
PowerColor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ Review
Quickflix Review
Raijintek Metis Classic Computer Case Review
The state of Linux gaming in the SteamOS era

ASUS Designo MX27AQ WQHD Monitor Review

Today we look at the new ASUS MX27AQ – a 27 inch WQHD (2560×1440) LCD monitor. This AH-IPS panel delivers a reported 100% sRGB colour space and a 178 degree viewing angle. ASUS focus on the audio side too, with stereo speakers powered by a combination of ICEpower, a Bang & Olufsen technology, a MobileSound 3 chip and ASUS SonicMaster tuning. ASUS have incorporated their AudioWizard into the monitor itself, with four pre set modes available via an on screen menu.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Core i7-5960X CPU Review

Last year, Intel released its new high-end desktop platform, the X99, which uses the new LGA2011-v3 socket. The CPUs launched for this platform are codenamed "Haswell-E," and the most high-end CPU lauched for this platform is the Core i7-5960X, which has eight cores (16 threads thanks to the Hyper-Threading technology), 3.0 GHz clock (3.5 GHz maximum clock, through Turbo Boost technology), and the support for quad-channel DDR4 memories. Let's benchmark this beast and see how well it performs.

Read full article @ Hardware Secrets

DirectX 12 Performance Preview, Part 3: Star Swarm & Intel's iGPUs

We’re back once again for the 3rd and likely final part to our evolving series previewing the performance of DirectX 12. After taking an initial look at discrete GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD in part 1, and then looking at AMD’s integrated GPUs in part 2, today we’ll be taking a much requested look at the performance of Intel’s integrated GPUs. Does Intel benefit from DirectX 12 in the same way the dGPUs and AMD’s iGPU have? And where does Intel’s most powerful Haswell GPU configuration, Iris Pro (GT3e) stack up? Let’s find out.

As our regular readers may recall, when we were initially given early access to WDDM 2.0 drivers and a DirectX 12 version of Star Swarm, it only included drivers for AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. Those drivers in turn only supported Kepler and newer on the NVIDIA side and GCN 1.1 and newer on the AMD side, which is why we haven’t yet been able to look at older AMD or NVIDIA cards, or for that matter any Intel iGPUs. However as of late last week that changed when Microsoft began releasing WDDM 2.0 drivers for all 3 vendors through Windows Update on Windows 10, enabling early DirectX 12 functionality on many supported products.

With Intel WDDM 2.0 drivers now in hand, we’re able to take a look at how Intel’s iGPUs are affected in this early benchmark. Driver version 10.18.15.4098, these drivers enable DirectX 12 functionality on Gen 7.5 (Haswell) and newer GPUs, with Gen 7.5 being the oldest Intel GPU generation that will support DirectX 12.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Divoom Voombox Outdoor Rugged Bluetooth Speaker Review

Portable Bluetooth speakers have really taken off in the past few years. They make playing and sharing your music with friends extremely easy. They are small enough to throw in a backpack or laptop bag and can be used with any device that has Bluetooth support. It seems more and more Bluetooth speakers are being taken with us, on camping trips, to the beach, etc. With that a more rugged Bluetooth speaker is needed. Divoom thinks they have that Bluetooth Speaker in their Voombox Outdoor. It is a portable Bluetooth speaker with a more rugged design and a water-resistant case that protects its components from splashing water and dust. Read on as we see what this Bluetooth speaker is all about…

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

February 2015 System Guide

In this latest edition of the TR System Guide, we've got updated graphics card recommendations (including the GeForce GTX 960), more affordable memory, new storage goodness, and much more.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming Video Card Review

Gigabyte has three NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 models for you to pick from. The card that we are looking at today is the Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 Gaming, which is the flagship model.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Gigabyte P35K v3 Review

PC gaming is an expensive endeavor. Whether you're purchasing a desktop rig or something more portable, building your own or buying a prebuilt system, or just picking up a Steam Machine, expect to drop a significant chunk of change.A few machines try to offer decent performance for a bargain, including the Acer Aspire V15 and the Digital Storm Triton. Now, the latest model to join this affordable space is the Gigabyte P35K v3, and with it brings Nvidia's newest entry-level GPU, the GeForce GTX 965M, for an extra bump in performance.Gigabyte has classically been known to stuff its machines with value, and this model looks to be no different with a vibrant IPS screen and slim-line drive bay. On paper, the Gigabyte P35K v3 looks to be the full package, but how does it handle the latest PC games?

Read full article @ Techradar

Mac OS X Isn’t Safe Anymore: The Crapware / Malware Epidemic Has Begun

OS X users like to make fun of Windows users as the only ones that have a malware problem. But thats simply not true anymore, and the problem has increased dramatically in the last few months. Join us as we expose the truth about whats really going on, and hopefully warn people about the impending doom.C

Read full article @ Howtogeek

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 review: ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Inno3D, MSI and Zotac put to the test

Last month Nvidia introduced the GeForce GTX 960, a new mid-range graphics card that features a level of performance more than sufficient to run all modern games at good quality on Full HD and a remarkably low power consumption. Since then, we've tested six GTX 960 cards: in this review we'll be comparing the ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Strix 2GB, the EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC 2GB, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming 2GB, the Inno3D GeForce GTX 960 iChill Ultra 2GB, the MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2GB and the Zotac GeForce GTX 960 AMP! Edition 2GB.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

PowerColor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ Review

An attractive price point for a high-performance card. A deluge of Nvidia GPU releases have been stealing the limelight of late. New high-end cards such as the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 have cemented the green team's position as provider of modern, energy-efficient hardware, while the GeForce GTX 960 bestrides the mainstream market

But it's not all good news for Nvidia, as the GTX 970 has come under closer scrutiny for not being quite what it was initially made out to be. The lesser GTX 960 meanwhile arrives to retail at around £160 in overclocked form for a GPU that isn't significantly faster than the previous-generation model.

AMD and its partners spy an opportunity between these two Nvidia Maxwell-based graphic cards, and they are renewing the price-to-performance battle with the Radeon R9 290 in particular. A case in point is PowerColor, who is offering its custom-designed, overclocked PCS+ version at just over £200, thereby hitting the sweetspot existing between the two Nvidia cards.

Read full article @ Hexus

Quickflix Review

Australia has always been late to the party with digital entertainment. iTunes took years to launch down here, we still don't get Amazon Instant Prime and Netflix is only just getting around to setting up shop.But in those gaps between major international tech companies expanding Down Under, there has been a number of local startups hellbent on plugging the gap. In the media streaming space, that startup was Quickflix.Like Netflix in the US, Quickflix began its life as a postal DVD service, but with the rise of broadband penetration across the country, made the shift into digital streaming. With some financial backing from HBO, things looked promising for Quickflix for a while. But as history has shown us, the service failed to capture the imaginations of Australians, with the company struggling financially, and HBO selling its stake in the company to Channel 9. In fact, things have been so tough that Quickflix CEO Stephen Langsford asked customers to buy shares in the company last year.But while financially things haven't looked too great for the streaming service, the fact is that Quickflix still exists in the Australian market. With the arrival of Stan and Presto entertainment this year, and the impending launch of Netflix, things are going to get much more competitive.So how does Quickflix stack up in the current market?

Read full article @ Techradar

Raijintek Metis Classic Computer Case Review

Mini PC’s are a crucial part for a media center PC and even small compact gaming PC’s. With the Raijintek Metis Classic computer case, system builders can now build even smaller and more compact media center or gaming PC’s. This lightweight aluminum case supports mini-ITX motherboards and even a full size ATX power supply. The Metis comes in a variety of colors to choose from. These colors include red, black, silver, blue, green and gold. Benchmark Reviews has been given this gold sample for this review. With the right hardware components, the Metis can be turned into the perfect computer for the living room and even a high-performance gaming machine in a small form factor.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

The state of Linux gaming in the SteamOS era

After 14 months in beta, where does Valve's new platform push stand? For decades after Linux's early '90s debut, even the hardest of hardcore boosters for the open source operating system had to admit that it couldn't really compete in one important area of software: gaming. "Back in around 2010 you only had two choices for gaming on Linux," Che Dean, editor of Linux gaming news site Rootgamer recalls. "Play the few open source titles, Super Tux Kart and so on, or use WINE to play your Windows titles."

Ask anyone who was involved in the relatively tiny Linux gaming scene before this decade, and you'll get a similar response. "For a long time, it was just me porting games, and I did my best, but an industry that has an employee pool of one isn't a big industry," said veteran Linux programmer Ryan C. Gordon, who has worked on over 75 Linux gaming ports over the last 15 years. "It was slow for years on end with only a few decent commercial releases becoming available," Gaming on Linux site editor Liam Dawe agreed.

Read full article @ Arstechnica