Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Cougar 600M Gaming Mouse Review
Fractal Design Kelvin S24 Review
Gigabyte R9 280
Here's 240-FPS footage of AMD's FreeSync tech—and some new info
Intel 5th Gen Core Series Performance Preview With Dell's Gorgeous XPS 13
Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca review - Oops. Nope
OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC SSD drives hit 100TB mark
Tesoro Excalibur Review
Thermaltake Core V31 Midi Tower Review
Ultimate PC - January 2015
Western Digital Red Pro WD4001FFSX 4TB Hard Drive Review
Zorin OS 9 review - Looking good

Cougar 600M Gaming Mouse Review

Cougar has become quite proficient in it’s ability to continually surprise with innovation in peripherals. With the most recent iteration of their gaming mouse series, the Cougar 600M, the uncompromising engineering and design approach is stretched to the very limits by offering it at a more budget-friendly price. Just taking one look at this new species of desk-rodent raises an eyebrow — a hyper-colored orange mouse? Cougar boldly proclaims, “Yes” and demands you to look! Today at Benchmark Reviews, curiosity certainly has captured the cat, now let’s see if the 600M can roar!

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Fractal Design Kelvin S24 Review

Known for their passion with elegant case manufacture and silence, Fractal Design have expanded into the water cooling market by developing a new series of all-in-one liquid cooling solutions. Available in three different sizes, the Kelvin series offers 120, 240 and 360mm radiator models for enthusiasts to make use of.

Kelvin S24 is a closed loop liquid cooling solution which utilises a 240mm radiator. As such Fractal Design include dual 120mm cooling fans which are operate up to 1700RPM – slightly unusual for a product of this calibre which would usually have the facility of up to 2500RPM from other rivals.

Join us as we explore this new product and reveal what you can expect from its performance.

Read full article @ Vortez

Gigabyte R9 280

I think one of the most interesting things about video cards is that the performance you see from the cards is always changing. The cards are staying the same obviously, but after a launch we will see numerous driver updates, some of those include updates that improve and optimize in game performance both across the board and sometimes just with specific games. AMD recently introduced their Omega driver that included speed improvements and a LONG list of usability fixes. Well today I just happened to have an R9 280 from Gigabyte on hand. I’m going to see what sets their card apart from the competition and we will also have the chance to see how the new drivers perform as well. Along with that I am introducing a few new benchmarks into our 2015 benchmark suite, enjoy!

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Here's 240-FPS footage of AMD's FreeSync tech—and some new info

We've been hearing about FreeSync, AMD's answer to Nvidia's G-Sync variable refresh display tech, for just over a year now. This week at CES, we finally got a chance to see FreeSync in action, and we used that opportunity to shoot some enlightening 240-FPS footage. We were able to find out some new specifics from AMD, as well.

Read full article @ the Tech Report

Intel 5th Gen Core Series Performance Preview With Dell's Gorgeous XPS 13

Intel's strategically timed CES 2015 launch of their new 5th Generation Core Series processors for notebooks, was met with a reasonably warm reception, though it's always difficult to rise above the noise, with the sea of announcements from competitors and the like. Performance claims for Intel's new chip promise major gains in graphics and more modest increases in standard compute applications. However, the biggest bet Intel placed on the new Broadwell-U architecture is performance-per-watt throughput and battery life in premium notebook products that are now in production with major OEM partners...

A few manufacturers were early out of the gate with new Core i5 5XXX series-based machines and Lenovo had a few interesting models to show off. However, none of the major players caught the same kind of buzz and fanfare that Dell received, with the introduction of their new XPS 13 Ultrabook, powered by Intel's 5th gen, Core i5 series processors.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Lexar JumpDrive M20 Mobile 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

Lexar is constantly releasing new flash drive products and we are glad that we have the chance to test these wonderful products. Today we take a closer look at the JumpDrive M20 Mobile 32GB which is one of the latest flash drives available in stores. Lexar has also presented a couple of new USB flash drives at the 2015 CES which is taking place in Las Vegas, US (which you can see on our front page news). I hope that we will be able to show something from these latest series soon; but for now let us focus on the JumpDrive M20.

Flash drives are probably the most handy computer devices which are also inexpensive. Many users are working with them constantly, so high speeds and durability are some of the most important factors. Most of us are also using mobile devices such as smart phones or tablets, so USB ports with OTG functionality is also important. Speed, quality and mobility are the main features describing the Lexar JumpDrive M20 on the box but how does it really perform in daily work? Stay with us and find out if the Lexar JumpDrive M20 is the product for you.
 

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca review - Oops. Nope

Moar distrology: A review of Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca 64-bit edition with the Cinnamon desktop, tested and installed in a seven-boot configuration with internal and external hard disks, including look & feel, networking - Samba sharing and printing, Wireless, Bluetooth, multimedia - MP3 and Flash, partitioning setup, big problems with package management, updates and Broadcom network, Nvidia drivers setup, applications, system settings, resource usage, desktop customization and many associated problems, timezone problems, other issues and niggles, and more. Take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

OCZ Challenge update: All 5 ARC SSD drives hit 100TB mark

The drives all passed the warranty figure of 22TB at the close of December – our next test was to get them all past the 100TB mark. Would any fail?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Tesoro Excalibur Review

Coming in at a relatively inexpensive price, you would be forgiven for thinking, 'So, how did they manage that then?'. The answer lies in the switches. Opting to use the cheaper, Chinese made Kailh switches over the Cherry MX is likely the first indicator as to why you are looking at an illuminated mechanical keyboard at an affordable price. Though initially receiving bad reputation, the Kailh switches have reportedly improved and have recently been adopted for use in various well known products. The Excalibur comes in the choice of Kailh brown, blue and red which should cater for the majority of people.

Beyond a no frills design, the Excalibur also includes 512Kb of onboard memory for up to 200 macros or 2000 keystrokes that can be saved over 5 custom profiles, 5 Modes of LED backlighting (only available in blue) as well as various media keys and 6/NKRO.

Read full article @ Vortez

Thermaltake Core V31 Midi Tower Review

In this year’s somewhat crowded CES we may have witnessed the unveiling of a very large number of new electronic and electrical devices by an equally large number of companies but at the end of the day it didn’t really take long for anyone to realize that this year most manufacturers brought forward mobile accessories such as tablets, smartphones and smart bands rather than new PC hardware and peripherals something that i for once didn't see coming so soon (although i do realize that such products sell like cupcakes lately). Still many manufacturers introduced new PC hardware and peripherals not long ago and amongst those was the latest Core V31 Midi Tower by Thermaltake which ended up on our photo bench a few days ago.

The beginning of every myth and legend is about dreams and desire: the challenging, creative and combative features of Thermaltake Group create an exciting and fascinating user experience to share with everyone, while allowing users to enter a selfless state in terms of function and potential. Thermaltake Group's 3 main brands: Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2 have been merchandising throughout the world, and have successfully established 6 business footholds in areas such as Europe, America, Oceania, Japan and China, with 95 regional distributors and over 4000 premium retailers. All product planning is orientated by observation of global PC peripheral market and understanding of consumer demands. Thermaltake creates direct contact opportunities with resellers and consumers by participating major global ICT exhibitions and trade shows every year, and develop innovative marketing strategies for the promotions of new products. Meanwhile, Thermaltake incorporates the composite marketing system by making branch offices and regional distributors both the distribution channel and technical support or service center to provide instant support; by maintaining close contact with end users, we manage to strengthen corporate competitiveness and create the momentum for the growth of accomplishments. With its outstanding wisdom and strength Thermaltake Group is recruiting creative talents to build a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology and lifestyle!

Just like with the very good Core V51 and the excellent Core V71 tower before that the new Core V31 is a feature-rich midi tower that sports a similar perforated design which helps increase airflow, can fit graphics cards up to 420mm in length and CPU coolers up to 155mm tall, is completely tool-free, features a modular internal drive cage and has room for up to 8 fans and/or 3 radiators. Of course as the name clearly states the V31 is a cut-down version of the V51/71 models so we don't expect it to rival its larger brothers in features and interior space but at least after reading the specifications list it does seem quite interesting and we're going to take a closer look to see if that's really the case.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Ultimate PC - January 2015

The Ultimate PC: Only the best and fastest components available, with the appropriate astronomical price tag. You won't be able to assemble a PC better than this. That said, we do stay within reason, so you won't find us recommending for example yottabytes of SSD storage.

Please note: the PC Buyer’s Guide is compiled based on independent component tests performed by Hardware.Info. If no new, superior products are released that should replace one or more of the components, then the component(s) will remain the same as the previous month.

If you want to know more about how we compile our PC Buying guides, have a look at this article.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Western Digital Red Pro WD4001FFSX 4TB Hard Drive Review

In the modern Protestant church, you may notice worship style vary vastly between congregations of different denominations. Now, for those among us who do not attend church, or are not familiar with this stuff, let me start you off with some technical jargon. In the 'high church' model, which you can see in such as the Lutheran tradition, places a lot of emphasis on liturgy. These practices originates from the Catholic Church, which, during the Reformation, was decided it was acceptable to retain everything in the status quo, unless it was against the teaching of the Bible. On the other hand, in the 'low church' model, popular with the modern Evangelical movement, strips away everything -- the distinctive robes, fancy candles, and traditional creeds -- and rebuilds the entire contemporary style of worship from scratch on the basis of the Bible. While neither is theologically incorrect, the end result is pretty different. When we reviewed the Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB in June of last year, what we have seen is a drive built upon the Western Digital Green series, adding to it everything necessary to give it the right credentials to work in the modern small network attached storage. Today, we are going to look at something different. The Western Digital Red Pro WD4001FFSX 4TB is based on the Western Digital RE WD4000FYYZ 4TB enterprise grade drive, stripping away everything unnecessary for deployment in eight to sixteen bay NAS systems in order to keep the price in check. While neither is technically incorrect, the end product is pretty different for people with varying requirements. If the WD40EFRX is designed on the 'low church' philosophy of hard drives, then is the WD4001FFSX an equivalent example of the 'high church' model? Read on to find out what we have found!

Read full article @ APH Networks

Zorin OS 9 review - Looking good

And here's a review of Zorin OS 9 64-bit edition, an Ubuntu-based distribution with the Gnome desktop, tested in a quad-boot setup on a laptop with Intel graphics and SSD, including look & feel, themes, network connectivity - Wireless (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Samba sharing and printing, multimedia playback - Flash and MP3, partitioning & slideshow, updates, software management, backups, applications, system settings, system resources, stability, suspend & resume, small issues and problems, and more. Have fun.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo