Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ASUS Xonar U7 USB Sound Card Review
ASUS Z97I-Plus Preview
Best Games to Play While Sitting on the Loo with Nvidia Shield
Corsair Hydro Series H105 Review
Crucial M550 256GB SSD Review
Das Keyboard 4 Professional Review
Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3-1866 CL10 Memory Review
May 2014 System Guide
MSIs Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard reviewed
NETGEAR Nighthawk Smart WiFi Router R7000 Review
OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCI Express SSD Tears Up Benchmarks With Reckless Abandon
Patriot Stellar 64GB USB/OTG 3.0 Flash Drive Review
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Tower Case Review
QNAP SilentNAS HS-210 2-Bay NAS Review
Raijintek THEMIS Evo CPU Cooler Review
ROSA Desktop Fresh R3 Review
Snugg Distressed Brown Leather Case for Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Reviewed
The Top 10 Linux Desktop Environments
TRENDnet AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router (TEW-818DRU) Review
X2 Saturn 5.1 Gaming Headset Review
XTPower XT-10000ADF 10000mAh Power Bank Review

ASUS Xonar U7 USB Sound Card Review

ASUS’ Xonar U7 has been created in order to capitalize upon the lack of quality audio solutions in many of today’s, small form factor PCs, notebooks, convertible tablets and other mobile devices. With the standard desktop and high end gaming notebook segments already saturated with excellent sound solutions, it was time to once again look at an “outside the box” approach by offering something for those who want better sound quality from the devices they use every day. The Xonar U7 fits that bill by foregoing the add-in card format and using a USB interface to provide a high-end external soundcard.

Most consumers have a love/hate relationship with USB-based external soundcards and DACs. On the one hand there is absolutely no faster, easier way to upgrade the sound playback abilities than to simply plug in an external USB device. On the other side of the coin, by using USB for both data and power the abilities, these devices usually leave a lot to be desired on the audio fidelity front. Mix in a host of problems ranging from poor shielding causing interference to poor drivers leading to compatibility headaches with various applications and the end result has been USB being the black sheep of any soundcard lineup. This is why the $90 Xonar U7 is so interesting; it promises to sidestep most of these issues.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

ASUS Z97I-Plus Preview

With the Z97I-Plus, ASUS has another interesting mini-ITX motherboard in its portfolio. Lying in front of us, we have a very compact and well equipped motherboard, which for example received an M.2 slot. Other than that there are quite a few software features, which is rather usual with higher-end motherboards these days. With their new Z97 mothboard ASUS have also reworked the color scheme of their classic sereis motherboards and they're now way less flashy.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Best Games to Play While Sitting on the Loo with Nvidia Shield

When it comes to gaming, we as consumers are not exactly short on options; we have games consoles, PC’s, mobile devices, dedicated handheld games consoles and many other gadgets that allow us to enjoy one of modern societies favourite pastimes. Gaming on the big screen with our consoles or Steam’s Big Picture mode, our gaming PC’s when sat at our desk, handheld games consoles and mobile devices when we’re out and about. However, let’s not forget the one feature they don’t really put on the box for our hand held systems, they’re great for playing games while sat on the loo!

Gone are the days where we could all pronounce “disodium cocoamphodiacetate” from our endless reading of the back of a shampoo bottle, these day’s we spend our time on the throne checking our emails, chatting on Facebook, reading the news and watching clips on YouTube. In fact, smart devices such as our phones are likely to blame for us all spending more time in the bathroom than we actually need to, so why not take things to the next level and find an even better entertainment device for the bathroom.

Mobile gaming is one thing, but we all know the kind of effect this has on our smartphones battery life and while Tablets offer benefits such as bigger screens, they’re often not much more powerful than high-end smartphones, so there is little innovation in the quality of the games we play on these devices. The Nvidia Shield however does offer some unique tricks that are ideal for gaming around the house, with Game Stream you’re able to let your PC do all the graphical hard work, allowing you to play games from your PC directly onto the Shield. That’s right, high end PC gaming while sat on the toilet, welcome to the future.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Corsair Hydro Series H105 Review

The Corsair Hydro Series H105 has redefined what one can expect from an AIO liquid CPU cooler. Making use of a thicker 38 mm radiator and Corsair's own SP fans designed to deliver high static pressure, this well-engineered cooler makes quick work of the competition.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Crucial M550 256GB SSD Review

If you have wondered what caused SSD prices to drop so dramatically in the last few years, it has more to do than just competition. Higher density NAND is what has led the charge in plummeting prices; with the ability to cram more storage onto a package, the overall price goes down.

This comes with some drawbacks, however. As you know from reading our SSD reviews, controllers need to be able to access as much memory in parallel as possible. How much it takes to fully saturate a controller (and the SATA bus) depends on various factors, but generally the more channels it has to work with, the better, to a certain point.

This can be easily demonstrated by reading our Intel SSD 525 review, where we tested the exact same product in five different capacities ranging from 30GB to 240GB. The Sandforce controller in each drive gets to access either 4, 8, 16, 24, or 32 channels depending on capacity, and it seems to cap out at 24. Anything lower than that, and performance suffers. This has been the case for years – SSD performance generally reached its peak at 180 GB or so. Anything above that won’t be any faster, but anything below will be slower.

Read full article @ HCW

Das Keyboard 4 Professional Review

Have you ever noticed that people tend to invest a disproportionate amount of money in items that consume the most amount of time in their lives? For example, we spend a third of our life asleep yet I know several people that paid a hundred bucks or less on a mattress they’ve owned for more than a decade.

Or how about those whose jobs require them to use a computer for eight hours or more each day yet they type away on a clunky old keyboard with sticking keys that probably requires a PS/2 connection.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3-1866 CL10 Memory Review

Kingston recently released a new memory series aggressively called "FURY". Many computer users would say here comes yet another memory that is not much different than any other memory kit on the market. I can assure you there are some other changes other than just the new great looks that make this memory kit somehow special.

If you want to know what is so unique then please read this review and find out if the HyperX Fury series memory is worth the buy.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

May 2014 System Guide

We've got an exciting System Guide update this time around. The CPU market has broken out of its rut, a spate of new motherboards has arrived, and Radeons have returned to their intended prices at last. Not only that, but we've followed reader feedback and broadened our CPU, case, and power supply recommendations, as well. The result is perhaps our best and most thorough guide yet.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

MSIs Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard reviewed

MSI's Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard may be targeted at gamers, but it also has solid enthusiast credentials. This thing is loaded with builder-friendly features, easy-to-use overclocking controls, and thoughtful little touches that seasoned enthusiasts should appreciate. And you can play games with it, too. Read on for our in-depth look at the board.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

NETGEAR Nighthawk Smart WiFi Router R7000 Review

Today we will be taking a look at the Nighthawk Smart WiFi Router from NETGEAR. This is the top of the range WiFi router that NETGEAR offer, providing dual band gigabit 802.11ac wireless with a 1GHz dual core processor.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven.com

OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCI Express SSD Tears Up Benchmarks With Reckless Abandon

OCZ's RevoDrive series has been a popular enthusiast and workstation-class storage product family for years now. The last time we looked at an OCZ RevoDrive, the RevoDrive 3 X2 offered smoking-fast performance and bandwidth of up to 1.5GB/sec for reads and 1.25GB/sec for writes, thanks to its PCI Express-based design, which basically comprises four Sandforce-based SSDs on a single card... Since then, OCZ was acquired by Toshiba and has been going through its product stack, revamping their SSD portfolio with fresh re-designs based on Toshiba NAND Flash memory...

OCZ has now replaced the RevoDrive 3 series with an almost completely re-designed product that we'll be looking at today. The RevoDrive 350 is based on the same OCZ VCA 2.0 (Virtualized Controller Architecture) technology as the previous generation but is now enabled with a PCI Express X8 card interface and up to 4 LSI SandForce SD-2282 SSD processors, along with 19nm Toshiba NAND Flash. The good news is, not only is the new RevoDrive 350 faster at 1.8GB/sec claimed bandwidth for sequential reads and 1.7GB/sec for sequential writes, but it's also significantly more affordable, at literally half the price of the previous gen RevoDrive...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Patriot Stellar 64GB USB/OTG 3.0 Flash Drive Review

Portable devices, especially smartphones, play a very important role in our daily life. On a personal level, they provide a gate through which we connect with our network of family members, friends, and a whole lot of random strangers also. Professionally, smartphones provide great functionality and flexibility; allowing the workplace to extend beyond the office. That being said, portable devices have their limitations which are inherent to the portability factor. The best smartphone money can buy is still a device with limited internal storage and battery life. So far, external battery-packs help solve the battery life issue to a certain extent. Internal storage however is a bit more complicated. Some phone manufacturers will allow the use of an external MicroSD card (up to 64 GB), while certain devices do not even have this option. Now let's say you are the lucky owner of a phone with an external MicroSD card slot, you probably know what hassle it can be to access the not-so-external card, not to mention the abysmal speed transfers through Micro USB 2.0 connectors.

Today I will be looking at the Patriot Stellar USB 3.0 and USB OTG flash drive. As you might have guessed from the name, the Stellar is a 2-in-1 device. The USB 3.0 functionality provides great transfer speeds, especially when copying files from a computer with a compatible port. The USB OTG, which stands for "On-The-Go", is compatible with smartphones equipped with a Micro USB port and running Android 4.0 or higher. With Patriot being one of the major names in the memory and flash storage scene, I have very high expectations of this tiny, yet extremely nice looking piece of hardware.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Phanteks Enthoo Pro Tower Case Review

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro full-tower computer case boasts compatibility with EATX, ATX, and mATX motherboards, plenty of options for 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives, and a large tinted window combined with a PSU shroud for a clean, attractive build. Cooling wise, the Enthoo Pro features mounts for up to ten case fans ranging from 120mm to 200mm in size, four different locations for radiators, and and a mount for an internal reservoir.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

QNAP SilentNAS HS-210 2-Bay NAS Review

When we look at where a NAS is typically designed to be placed, integration into a home A/V setup is not overly common surprisingly. Whilst there are a countless number of two and four bay systems that offer media playback capabilities, which I will add is great to see for the SOHO markets, their tower like design is not always that convenient to fit in with the DVD players, surround sound systems and game console stack that many of us have underneath our TV’s in the lounge – like the photo above funnily enough which is a quick glimpse into the system that we are taking a look at today.

QNAP as we know are one of the big players in the NAS market, lining up alongside Thecus, Asustor and Synology to name but a few and like everyone else, their product range spreads out from the basic single bay systems that are found on the entry-level end of the scale, right up to the 16+ bay rackmount systems that are built for enterprise and datacentre use. What QNAP have noticed though is that there is a gap in the market for systems like the one in hand today and considering many home users are now looking towards a network storage solution for their home media, now is a perfect time to hit that market with a system that blends right in to the A/V stacks that we all have in one way or another.

Built around a two bay design and supporting the latest 5TB drives, the HS-210 SilentNAS is, as the name would suggest, a system that takes noise head on and following some carefully planned design work, they have created a system that is totally passive with no fans included in the system. No fans = no noise and whilst we do have to account for the fact that spinning platter do generate a certain level of acoustic output, they are nowhere near as acoustic as they were only a few years ago. Another challenge that QNAP have decided to take on is hiding the drive bays away from view. Whereas having drive bays on view on a typical desktop NAS, in a home theater setup they’re not the most elegant of objects to look at, so a front cover that hides the bays away acts as a simple, yet effective solution.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Raijintek THEMIS Evo CPU Cooler Review

The Raijintek THEMIS Evo performance is undeniable as displayed in the benchmark results, a fact that is made even sweeter by a $40 USD price tag.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

ROSA Desktop Fresh R3 Review

ROSA Desktop Fresh R3 is the latest edition of the Mandriva-derived Linux distribution from ROSA Laboratories, a Linux software solutions provider based in Moscow, Russia. This is one of my favorite desktop distributions because the developers are actually creating original applications and system utilities designed to make the desktop easy and fun to use.

The KDE edition, which is the distribution’s flagship edition, includes a few user-friendly features that are not available in vanilla KDE desktops. That’s why it’s one I never hesitate to recommend it to new and experienced users alike. The released installation images are for KDE only. Installation images for GNOME 3 and LXDE will likely be released in about a month.

Read full article @ LinuxBSDos.com

Snugg Distressed Brown Leather Case for Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Reviewed

TheSnugg continues to offer a great range of cases and accessories for our latest mobile devices. I recently acquired a new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and knowing it was going to be popular with my small but sometimes clumsy family I decided it needed some protection. This particular case comes in a variety of colors from black to pink, baby blue to white, with my particular choice being “distressed brown”. Some members of the family would have probably chosen pink, but I can’t see me walking around the streets of Stockholm with one of those in hand. The point is there’s a color to suit all styles and tastes, I just happen to fall into the (di)stressed brown category.

Read full article @ TestFreaks

The Top 10 Linux Desktop Environments

Dont know which Linux desktop environment is for you? From Gnome to KDE, from MATE to Unity, theres a lot of choice out there. Where should you start? Windows and Mac both basically offer one desktop interface: the default one. Linux is another beast entirely. You can choose whatever desktop interface you like. Overwhelmed? Heres a list of the top ten desktop environments, to make it easy to compare. Gnome 3 Gnome is one of the two major desktop environments available, alongside KDE.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

TRENDnet AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router (TEW-818DRU) Review

The TEW-818DRU is the next iteration after the TEW-812DRU (2nd revision) and features increased coverage, better wireless speeds and two USB ports for connecting additional storage devices. TRENDnet proposes an alternative DD-WRT open-source firmware for it which we can flash with ease; while the current open-source version is not 100% stable and the USB storage on DD-WRT is not working properly at the moment, we are hoping for a revised variant in the near future in order to fix these issues.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

X2 Saturn 5.1 Gaming Headset Review

X2 has sent us a true 5.1 USB gaming headset to try out and it'™s not relying on virtual surround sound to get the job done. Each earcup on the Saturn headset has multiple drivers which outputs different surround channels for better positional audio compared to two channel stereo headphones and headsets. Read on to see how it performs!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

XTPower XT-10000ADF 10000mAh Power Bank Review

Portable power banks (or battery packs as i like to call them) may have been around for quite some time now but it seems that many people i know of don't seem to care much about carrying such a gadget with them at all times. Luckily the growing number of companies that have as their sole job to design and manufacture portable battery packs and the infinite number of models currently available in the market mean that the same doesn't apply for most people and so such devices just might be amongst the top hottest things in the market currently. From the moment NikKTech came online we have used and reviewed quite a few such devices some of which yielded exemplary results while others unfortunately didn't even make it to our pages due to hardware errors. XTPower is behind some of the best models currently out in the market including the massive MP-23000A (although now they released the MP-32000A) which we reviewed a while back but since it was obviously too much for most people we just had to check their more "mainstream" models the first of which is the XT-10000ADF Portable Battery.

We are your technically competent and reliable partner in matters of mobile energy supply and offer you a wide selection of High Quality Power Banks. Through many years of experience in the field of batteries and electronics, close contact with the design team and the manufacturing facilities we know what is important and always have the goal to implement your needs on the available mobile power models to your complete satisfaction. We want to show you new possibilities of mobile energy supplies and are happy when our range of USB battery and solar panels attract your curiosity. XTPower (www.xtpower.de) is a registered trademark of Batteries and Power Solutions GmbH and stands for innovative products in the field of batteries and portable battery chargers. All our Power Banks and solar panels are sold by Intecro a company that offers excellent service and expert advice to all our satisfied customers. We look forward to you, your team of Batteries and Power Solutions and Intecro (www.intecro.de).

Although the design of the XT-10000ADF is very compact still it features an 10.000mAh lithium-polymer rechargeable battery and can be used to simultaneously charge up to two devices with its two 5V USB ports (1x1000A/1x1000-2100A). In cases of an emergency the XT-10000ADF can also be used as a flashlight thanks to the small LED XTPower has placed at the front while a convenient 4 LED indicator is placed at the top so you can always know how much juice there's still left in the battery. Of course the thing with portable batteries is that many times there's a huge gap between the advertised capacity and the real capacity so let's see what the XT-10000ADF really has to offer.

Read full article @ NikKTech