Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

Adesso Xtream H2 Bluetooth Headset Review
AMD Mantle Patch for THIEF on Intel 3570K CPU
Asus (Intel) Z97-A Review
Asus ROG Maximus VI Impact Mini-ITX motherboard reviewed
Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 Motherboard Preview
ASUS Z97 Deluxe LGA 1150 Motherboard Review
Braebo Computers ‘Titan’ Budget AMD Gaming System Review
Budget CPU Roundup: AMD Kabini vs. Intel Bay Trail-D
Galaxy S5 vs Note 3 Video Review
GIGABYTE 9-Series LGA1150 Motherboards Preview
GIGABYTE GTX 750 Ti OC Review
Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force Motherboard Preview
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition Motherboard Preview
Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo OTG 32GB USB Flash Drive Review
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler Review
Synology DS1513+ 5-Bay NAS Review
Turtle Beach Ear Force XO Four Gaming Headset Review
Upcoming Intel Based Motherboards from GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI and ASRock
ViewSonic Pro8600 Review

Adesso Xtream H2 Bluetooth Headset Review

Back in 2007, I remember receiving a Creative Zen, which was my first digital audio player. I have always enjoyed music in general, because it has a way of toying with emotions -- whether to relax myself during down times, or to keep me focused while studying for exams. From that day on, I would listen to my MP3 player on the way to school, if only to give me something to do on the daily bus rides. Of course, nowadays, I have stopped using my Creative Zen, and switched over to my smartphone. As for headphones, I had never really carried around anything expensive. I have a small fear that one day my earbuds will get stolen, and if they break, I will not cry over it, since they are easy to replace. Even at home, I use my respectable-but-budget Sennheiser HD439, which work great everywhere, as long as you remain inside the home. These set of cans are not meant to be traveling headphones, as they do not feature anything foldable, or even come with a traveling case. I often find myself tangled with issues when I am using wired headphones, because the wires get in the way and either get caught in my jacket zipper, or snagged on a desk. You know, first world problems. When Editor in Chief Jonathan Kwan approached me to review a pair of Bluetooth wireless headphones, namely the Adesso Xtream H2, I was excited to finally get rid of all my other earbuds. This is meant for traveling with its foldable design, includes a traveling case, and also removes any wire issues I have had in the past. They are not too pricey at a price of around $39 at press release. Is this really a suitable replacement for my cheapo earbuds, or is my excitement a bit premature? This question and others will be answered today.

Read full article @ APH Networks

AMD Mantle Patch for THIEF on Intel 3570K CPU

Battlefield 4 was the first game to support Mantle, and Legit Reviews found that with just a driver update and patch by EA-DICE, Mantle did provide a significant performance increase. Now, Square Enix has stepped up and patched Thief to support Mantle and AMD€™s TrueAudio. Recently, we tested the patch on an AMD A10-5800 APU and found that it provided a performance increase, which was dependent on the quality settings. Let’s take a look at how Mantle affects the performance of Thief on an Intel CPU.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Asus (Intel) Z97-A Review

We take a peek at a motherboard bearing the next-generation chipset. Getting the obvious out of the way, the 9-series Asus boards look a heck of a lot better than the overly-yellow, gaudy offerings from last year. This time around, the design is understated and rather more functional-looking.

There's not a whole lot of innovation left in ATX motherboard design. What we're really looking for are genuine differences between this and last year's board. Asus has redesigned the chipset heatsink into a low-profile, fanless model that catches the eye, replacing the square heatsink of the Z87-A.

Read full article @ Hexus

Asus ROG Maximus VI Impact Mini-ITX motherboard reviewed

The Maximus VI Impact is the first Mini-ITX motherboard to come from Asus' premium Republic of Gamers family. It's loaded with extras, including an M.2 SSD slot, an audio riser card, and loads of little touches that are perfect for small-form-factor builds. Read on for a detailed look at one of the best enthusiast boards around.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 Motherboard Preview

Asus’s Sabertooth motherboards have proven popular since their inception a number of generations ago. Based on their widespread popularity it comes as no surprise that The Ultimate Force (TUF) motherboards are making an appearance for the ‘future Intel chipset’. A number of the upcoming chipset’s specifications help bolster the feature-set Asus implements on its TUF series motherboard.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ASUS Z97 Deluxe LGA 1150 Motherboard Review

Today ASUS is launching its Z97 series DELUXE motherboard based on Intel's new Z97 Express chipset. Intel's Z97 chipset is little more than a refresh of the Z87 Express chipset. Despite this, the Z97-Deluxe we are reviewing today builds on ASUS' lengthy tradition of innovation and attempts to set the bar even higher than before.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Braebo Computers ‘Titan’ Budget AMD Gaming System Review

When we take a wide look at the pre-built systems market in the UK, the number of names out there that one can choose from is growing on a near day-to-day basis. The scale at which each of these system integrators run does vary quite considerably and on the high-end of the scale where the big names such as Scan Computers and Overclockers UK dominate the market, competition is fierce and the number of systems that each name has to offer covers an incredibly wide range of budgets. When we look towards the other end of the scale, where getting your name out there is key, pitching just high-end systems that costs hundreds to buy is not exactly going to be an easy way of doing this. Instead of offering systems on the upper end of the performance scale, the other option is to create a line of budget friendly systems that contain a more modest level of performance making them ideal for the first time buyer who is just getting their feet into the door and the world of gaming on a PC.

Based in Rushden, Northamptonshire; Braebo Computers, compared to the big names out there, are a small company that was setup by two brothers since they started building systems for the public back in 2002. Since then they have developed a small range of systems, all with components from some of the biggest brands in the industry and whilst their operation my be small, they strive to offer excellent value for money with a customer service that would rival that of the market leaders. Building quality systems that are suited to your needs are where they excel and this ethos is what is driving them forward in a highly competitive market space.

The system that we are taking a look at today is one of their latest creations, offering an all-AMD based lineup consisting of the latest A10-7700k APU and an R9 270 graphics card, along with an SSD courtesy of Corsair, 16GB of memory from Crucial and off of this is spread out across one of Gigabyte’s top performing AMD boards – the F2A88X G1 Sniper. Alongside the system itself, our review package today consists of a full desktop setup that Braebo offer to all of their customers meaning that we have all the basic items needed to get the system up and running – ideal for the first time buyer. In this care package we have a 22″ monitor for AOC and a USB mouse and keyboard set from Microsoft. In addition the Titan comes with the lastest version of Windows 8.1 pre-installed and the added extra of a wireless card for connecting your new system into your home network. It looks as though all the basic essentials have been taken care of and ticked off, so lets take a look at the Titan system and see what it’s made of.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Budget CPU Roundup: AMD Kabini vs. Intel Bay Trail-D

AMD set its sights on desktops in emerging markets last month, announcing its AM1 platform and the first Kabini-based socket APUs. The Kabini architecture arrived last year for ultra-mobile and embedded devices, bringing 28nm chips with TDP ratings as low as 3.9w, though most parts were rated for 8 to 15w.

When they first landed, Kabini chips were BGA parts using the Socket FT3 and featured either two or four cores using the Jaguar microarchitecture. Unlike Kaveri desktop APUs which have a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, Kabini parts are limited to a single-channel DDR3 controller that tops out at 1600MHz.

Read full article @ Techspot

Galaxy S5 vs Note 3 Video Review

We see how Samsung's latest flagship compares to its premier phablet. With the Samsung Galaxy S5 now out, buyers across the globe are wondering how the premier Android smartphone compares to other key players in the mobile arena.

Interestingly though, with big screens currently all the rage in the smartphone world, as well as its traditional Apple, HTC and Sony competitors, one of the Galaxy S5's biggest rivals is its Samsung-born sibling, the Galaxy Note 3.

Released in October, the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro features a number of custom features differentiating it from the Galaxy S5. Chief of these are its larger 5.7in Super Amoled 1080x1920 touchscreen and dockable S Pen stylus.

Read full article @ V3

GIGABYTE 9-Series LGA1150 Motherboards Preview

A couple of days ago we had the opportunity to get an exclusive first look at a large portion of Gigabyte's upcoming Intel 9-Series LGA1150 motherboards. Although we can't share some specific details like what chipset they use, what the chipset features are, nor show any related logos, we can show you some of the most interesting North America bound models. We have to emphasize the "some" part since Gigabyte's 9-Series line-up will consist of of thirty-seven models, thirty-two of which will be released shortly.

Why so many? Well differing feature demands from the various regions around the world is one factor, but Gigabyte is also betting on the fact that since support for Windows XP finally expired on April 8, there will be an uptick in demand for motherboards as people decide to upgrade their OS and likely build new desktop computers from scratch. They see the Intel 9-Series chipsets as a particularly long-term offering due to its support for current 4th generation and upcoming 5th generation Intel Core processors.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

GIGABYTE GTX 750 Ti OC Review

With the ultra high end graphics cards fast approaching the £1000 mark it is easy to overlook the cards at the entry level costing a little more than a 10th of this price. While the red and green team fight for the top performance spot, there are equally fought battles further down the performance league. The NVIDIA GTX750 Ti which we reviewed, impressed with its cost vs. performance figures and of course having the hugely anticipated Maxwell processor on-board it was a very cool performer while also appealing to Greenpeace due to the low power consumption. Those two features, heat output and power consumption were what the card gained awards for so the question has to be asked then why GIGABYTE thought it would be a good idea to increase cooling performance of an already cool running card and allow more power to be pumped through the Maxwell core? We suspect that GIGABYTE were not satisfied with the overclock of the reference design and believe there is more performance to be gained from this GPU through overclocking.

Read full article @ Vortez

Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force Motherboard Preview

Boards designed for extreme overclockers have been constants for all of Intel’s most recent platforms. Gigabyte hit success with the Z87X-OC motherboard by driving the overclocking-geared part to an aggressive mid-range price point. Many of the key overclocking-orientated features were still present, but the bank-busting price tag was not. Gigabyte is attempting to repeat its success with its upcoming Z97X-SOC Force motherboard.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition Motherboard Preview

It’s approaching that time of the year; the launch of Intel’s ‘future chipset’ is just around the corner and board partners are busy preparing their products for the retail channels. Full reviews of motherboards based on the ‘future Intel chipset’ still cannot be published for another few weeks (as we always adhere to Intel’s NDA), but in the mean time let’s look at some highlights of the upcoming products.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo OTG 32GB USB Flash Drive Review

Whether that's a USB flash drive that we carry around with us or a portable hard drive which we use for the transfer of large chunks of data there's no doubt that portable storage devices have become part of our daily lives. The same can be said about tablets and although they haven't been around for nearly as much as USB flash drives i know many people who can't return back to the way things were prior to them getting their first tablet. Up until recently in the market one could find numerous USB flash drives of all sizes and capacities by many manufacturers which could be used with tablets either featuring full sized USB connectors or with the help of USB to microUSB adapters sold separately. It didn't take long however for that to become a serious problem when tablet manufacturers ceased support for full sized USB connectors (it was a necessary move to make tablets thinner) and since USB to micro USB adapters where never very popular to begin with a solution was needed. Kingston is amongst the very few USB drive manufacturers to take care of that issue with their latest DataTraveler MicroDuo OTG USB Flash Drive.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

Read full article @ NikKTech

Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler Review

Tower CPU Coolers may have been around for roughly a decade now but dual tower CPU coolers (also known as sandwich CPU coolers) are quite new in and only count 5 years in the market (at least consumer models). Of course in these 5 years pretty much every single manufacturer has tried their luck such a solution but Noctua was the very first to do so with their massive NH-D14 back in late 2009 a CPU Cooler which is still considered as one of the best to date. Noctua did make some slight improvements on the NH-D14 in late 2011 and since they also made it compatible with the latest Intel LGA2011 socket they renamed it as the NH-D14 SE2011. Having known Noctua since the beginning however we knew that this wouldn't be their last attempt in the dual tower arena and since they just released the NH-D15 it seems that we were on the spot and what better way to celebrate than checking it out?

Designed in Austria, Noctua's premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 3000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua's fans and heatsinks are chosen by more than a hundred thousand satisfied customers around the globe. Noctua comes from a cooperation of the Austrian Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H. with the Taiwanese cooling specialist Kolink International Corporation, pooling more than ten years of experience in the development, manufacturing and marketing of high-end cooling components. Established in 2005, Noctua took the international silent enthusiasts' hearts by storm and quickly developed into one of the most acclaimed suppliers of premium quality quiet cooling products. Today, Noctua is present in more than 30 countries across the globe and working with several hundred sales partners. Chosen by noise conscious PC users, system integrators and industry clients alike, Noctua has become synonymous with impeccable quality, excellent customer service and class leading quiet cooling performance.

Read full article @ Nikktech

Synology DS1513+ 5-Bay NAS Review

When we look at the number of bays that each and every NAS on the market has to offer, typically we find the bays rising in multiples of 2, although we do find that there are 5 and 7 bay options out there as well for those who want to bridge the price gap between the 4-6 bay price bracket and additionally the 6-8 bay bracket. Typically in the home environment we find users buying 2-4 bay systems and with capacities of up to 16TB on offer, this is generally more than enough to suit the majority of users in this group. On the other end of the scale in the enterprise market, 16-bay systems are not uncommon and in some cases 24-bay systems can be found, but in between these two extreme ends of the market is the SMB (Small-to-Medium-Business) and SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) group of users. At this level in the market, 4 bay systems are ample solutions to go for but in most cases they are just a starting point, with users and businesses soon seeing that they need to go up to a 6 or 8 bay system to suffice their needs. As said though, the price difference in some cases is quite notable and this is where units such as Synology’s DS1513+ come into play.

The Ds1513+ is by no means a new system to the market, in fact it was released in the mid-part of last year, but what is significant about this system is that it has five drive bays to work with in a desktop format which allows for up to 20TB of RAW storage, but even more importantly it has four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back, allowing for high-levels of bandwidth and throughput when setup with a compatible switch. So why I hear you ask am I reviewing a product that is nearly a year old? Well the simple answer is that whilst there have been a fair number of new products in the SOHO and SMB classes come to market since the launch if this system, I have until this point only looked at consumer level and SOHO based systems which are ideal for the home user, but not quite what the business user is after, both in terms of functionality and performance. Whilst I could have chosen a more recent system to put to the test, Synology were keen to show me that their DS1513+ is still s class leading product long after it hit the market – or that’s what they tell me.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Turtle Beach Ear Force XO Four Gaming Headset Review

We’ve got something pretty special in the eTeknix office today, the latest headset from Turtle Beach and our very first review of an Xbox One peripheral. I’ve not had much joy from the console its self over the last couple of month, but one thing I have hated most of all is the lack of great headsets, or at least headsets that I like using. Hopefully the new headset from Turtle Beach can resolve this.

Gaming is big business and competitive gaming is right at the heart of it for many of us, be that eSports or just teaming up with a few friends for a couple of rounds on Battlefield on an evening. Nothing will improve your game more than practice, but having the right peripherals for the job can massively improve the quality of your experience, or at least give you an extra edge over your opponents. A good quality headset can be an immersive experience and being able to clearly communicate with your team mates is often vital when playing competitively. With prices ranging from £75- £100 from the XO Four headset, it’s certainly not a budget solution, so I’ll be looking for a good standard of build quality, performance and plenty of features for such an investment.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Upcoming Intel Based Motherboards from GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI and ASRock

Intel has recently been awash with news about upcoming processors. In March, Intel released information on an upcoming unlocked Haswell Pentium processor, an upcoming Haswell-K processor with overclocking enhancements, an unlocked Iris Pro processor coming to Broadwell, and some details regarding an 8-core Haswell-E processor due later this year. This is a bit of an odd article various motherboard manufacturers have posted new product images online for an upcoming platform, with all the juicy bits redacted. Here is our analysis of some of those products.

Read full article @ Anandtech

ViewSonic Pro8600 Review

This is one bright beamer. Capable of pumping out 6,000 lumens for the paltry sum of around £1,500 ($2520/AUS$2719), ViewSonic has come up with something genuinely exciting.Add an ability to simultaneously display the desktops of four computer screens and the Pro8600 seems like the ideal solution for collaboration.Add DLP Link 3D readiness and the Pro8600 could be perfect for some, but there are aspects about the Pro8600 that make it anything but cutting-edge. SpecificationsOur major worry is detail – or lack of. If an XGA resolution (1024 x 768 pixels) for this kind of money seems unreasonable (particularly if it's then divvied-up between four computers), we're also not convinced by its 4:3 native shape.We would have preferred 16:10. Weighing 3.86kg and measuring 333 x 263 x 110mm, the Pro8600 comes in a handy carry case, though it's pretty basic stuff; the wraparound zip is handy for quickly extracting the Pro8600, and so too is the front section for all cables, but the fabric just doesn't seem strong enough. It comes with a shoulder strap, but it's a flimsy solution and we're not sure many people will risk carting around a £1,500 projector using only that for support. The Pro8600 is networkable, but only via wired LAN; WiFi is only a possibility if you purchase an optional WiFi dongle from ViewSonic.

Read full article @ Techradar