Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

be quiet! Silent Base 800 PC Case Review
Budget Game PC - August 2015
Coming in 2016: Intel Optane SSDs based on 3D Xpoint memory
Enermax Liqmax II 240mm AIO CPU Cooler Review
EVGA Z170 FTW Motherboard Review
How to Delete the Windows.old Folder in Windows 10
IDF 2015 Day 1: Skylake Graphics Arch, Intel Optane 3D XPoint SSD, Project Tango Smartphone
Intel Skylake Architecture Preview Quick Take From IDF 2015
Intel Skylake HD Graphics 530 Performance On Linux
Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac features Cortana among Windows 10 enhancements
Samsung SSD 850 Evo 2TB Review: Consistent Performance, Fairly Priced
The ASUS GTX 980 Ti STRIX OC Review
Tt eSports Cronos (Bass Boosted) Review
Windows 10 Vs Windows 8 Game Performance Review, Major Titles On Microsoft's New OS

be quiet! Silent Base 800 PC Case Review

There really is a lot of innovation and clever design going into PC cases these days, so it will be very interesting to see what be quiet! brings to the table with their first chassis offering, the Silent Base 800. The Silent Base 800 is by no means a new chassis, in fact, it's been out for a year. It was sent to us recently because be quiet! has updated the case with a windowed side panel that should renew interest in the model. Customers can buy the case with the side panel included if they don't already own a Silent Base 800, while existing users are able to purchase the panel separately. Read on to check out how building a system in this case went!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Budget Game PC - August 2015

The Hardware.Info Budget Game PC Advice has a balanced configuration for playing video games, without having to spend too much. The components have been selected to offer the best bang for your buck.

That means you cannot always expect the highest settings, resolution and frame rate, but at the same time you should be able to play all modern games in Full HD resolution without making huge concessions to either the image quality or your enjoyment of the game.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Coming in 2016: Intel Optane SSDs based on 3D Xpoint memory

During the opening keynote of the Intel Developer Forum today, Intel announced that it will be shipping SSDs based on its very promising 3D Xpoint memory, co-developed with Micron, which is a replacement for NAND flash. Intel has claimed that 3D Xpoint has 1000x the speed and endurance of existing flash storage. This new technology will ship in a new family of Intel SSDs, called Optane, sometime in 2016. The Optane brand will encompass 3D Xpoint memory, storage controllers, and a software stack from Intel.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Enermax Liqmax II 240mm AIO CPU Cooler Review

Enermax are one of my all time favourite brands, as they’ve created some really unique chassis designs over the years, some stunning power supplies and most importantly to myself, their AIO water coolers still dominate the top of our charts, giving us some truly incredible cooling performance that would make you think twice about needing a custom loop. Their latest cooler, the LiqMax II 240mm All-in-One Liquid CPU Cooler is certainly something I’ve been looking forward to testing, especially so given the performance of their LiqTech coolers and I’m eager to see how this one compares.

As you can see, the ELC-LMR240-BS as it is technically known, comes well equipped with a ceramic bearing pump, an aluminium radiator and a pair of high quality 120mm fans, which can operate right up to 2000RPM.

Read full article @ eTeknix

EVGA Z170 FTW Motherboard Review

It all depends if you choose to be clean shaved or you like the gruffness of the 5 O’clock shadow. Which one are you? Those who like and appreciate the clean shaved look are usually a little more precise on their appearance taking just a few extra minutes to make sure that one hair that’s sticking up lays flat before they go out and about. If you prefer the 5 O’clock shadow your most likely the type who appearance matters but that speck of lint on your collar isn’t going to bother you since you’re all about performance and don’t need to waste any time on the little things. Honestly I don’t really think most of us are one or the other I think for the most part we have a little bit of both hidden somewhere deep inside.

When you look at a motherboard, what do you see? Is it the boards appearance that grabs your eye or do you prefer a clean uncluttered more classic look? Some motherboard manufacturers add a ton of eye candy to bestow the appearance of being made for a certain genre but in the end appearance is all it has to offer. Others may seem like they weren’t well thought out but as soon as they are lit they perform like no other. Can a motherboard manufacturer produce a product that encompasses both a classic clean appearance and perform with precision? Some can and some can’t, it always seems that there is a lean more towards one side more than the other. There is one motherboard manufacturer that seems to have mastered that concept and that is EVGA, over the years they have provided a classic clean look with just the right amount of flare while also maintaining a focus on performance. The EVGA Z170 FTW motherboard does not depart from that philosophy.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion

How to Delete the Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

When you upgrade your Windows installation from Windows 7 or 8.1 you might notice a Windows.old folder in your C:\ drive. Windows keeps an old version of your operating system on your PC in case you are not happy with Windows 10 and want to revert back. Now if you feel you are happy with Windows 10 you are going to want to delete that folder as it takes of several GB’s of space on your system. If you just try and delete the folder Windows won’t let you as it thinks many of the files are system files. No fear though, we are going to show you how to delete the Windows.old folder and free up some space in your system!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

IDF 2015 Day 1: Skylake Graphics Arch, Intel Optane 3D XPoint SSD, Project Tango Smartphone

After a Rube Goldberg machine did its thing and launched a few drones into the air above the crowd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich took the stage to kick off the Intel Developers Forum 2015 with an opening keynote address...

We've got coverage of some of the key highlights of Day 1 of IDF 2015, and you'll not want to miss it.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Intel Skylake Architecture Preview Quick Take From IDF 2015

We've got just one more for you today (promise) from IDF 2015 but and worthy fodder for discussion.

Intel is still keeping a number of details regarding its complete Skylake microarchitecture and product line-up under wraps for a few more weeks. However, at a public session at IDF, some of the key technologies and design updates introduced with Skylake were discussed in detail.

During the session, Julius Mandelblat, Senior Principal Engineer at Intel, talked about changes to the CPU core in Skylake, along with some improvements made to the interconnects and memory interface, power and thermal characteristics, and platform level enhancements.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Intel Skylake HD Graphics 530 Performance On Linux

Intel's Core i5 6600K and i7 6700K processors released earlier this month feature HD Graphics 530 as the first Skylake graphics processor. Given that Intel's Open-Source Technology Center has been working on open-source Linux graphics driver support for over a year for Skylake, I've been quite excited to see how the Linux performance compares for Haswell and Broadwell as well as AMD's APUs on Linux. In this article is the first of these OpenGL benchmarks comparing the Core i5 6600K to other offerings from Intel and AMD.

The Intel HD Graphics 530 on the Core i5 6600K have a base frequency of 350MHz and a maximum frequency of 1.15GHz. The HD Graphics 530 supports addressing up to 1.7GB of system memory, boasts 24 execution units, supports 4K @ 60Hz, three displays can be driven at once, and is capable of OpenGL 4.3 / DirectX 11.2 / DirectX 12_1. The HD Graphics 530 should end up being a nice upgrade over Haswell's HD Graphics 4600 found on the Core i7 4770K and 4790K. However, the HD Graphics 530 aren't meant to compete with Broadwell's Iris Pro 6200 Graphics as found on the Core i7 5775C socketed Broadwell processor. We'll need to wait a while before seeing Skylake Iris Graphics with an eDRAM cache in socketed, desktop form.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac features Cortana among Windows 10 enhancements

Latest version of the tool that lets Mac users run Windows software. Parallels has unveiled a new version of Desktop for Mac that extends support for Windows 10 as a guest operating system, enabling Cortana to listen for spoken commands and boosting performance and battery life, among other features.

Available immediately, Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac is the latest version of the software that lets Apple users run other operating systems alongside OS X on a Mac, providing access to Microsoft's Office suite for Windows, for example, as well as enabling them to develop for the Microsoft platform.

Read full article @ V3

Samsung SSD 850 Evo 2TB Review: Consistent Performance, Fairly Priced

It's hard to believe the prices many of us were paying for SSD storage just a few years ago when we can grab a 1TB Crucial MX200 SSDs for just $365 (coming in at $0.36 per gigabyte). Recently, Samsung delivered even higher capacity SSDs with 2TB versions of its famed 850 Pro and 850 Evo series, which we have on hand today. While we already know the drive is reasonably priced for the amount of storage provided, we're keen to see what its performance looks like.

Read full article @ Techspot

The ASUS GTX 980 Ti STRIX OC Review

NVIDIA’s GTX 980 Ti is currently in an odd position . After AMD launched their R9 Fury X and subsequently more affordable R9 Fury, many expected the battle for high end GPU supremacy to heat up in a big way. That didn’t happen. Instead of staling sales from their GeForce competitors, the new AMD cards have actually pushed buyers towards the GTX 980 Ti and to a lesser extent the GTX 980. A lot of this has been due to a lack of stock for many of AMD's top-end SKUs. As a result, NVIDIA and their board partners are scrambling to meet the bonanza in demand by increasing production capacity and continuing to launch class-leading custom designs.

One of the latest and also most anticipated releases is ASUS’ GTX 980 Ti STRIX OC, a graphics card that seemingly has everything but isn’t all that much more expensive than a reference card. At $669 it is $30 less expensive than the balls-to-the-wall Zotac AMP! Extreme and slightly less than MSI’s GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G and EVGA’s GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+. That is, if you can actually find it these days.

One thing we should also mention straight off the bat is the slight controversy that surrounded this card shortly after its launch and initial reviews. Some sites received a higher clocked non-retail version while cards destined for store shelves were supposed to be clocked a bit lower. Our sample is straight from the retail channel so the clock speeds you see below are the ones that customers STRIX OC cards come equipped with.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Tt eSports Cronos (Bass Boosted) Review

Rather than actually being a replacement or refresh of the original Cronos, the Bass Boosted edition seems offer better value with its lower price tag than its predecessor. In our earlier review, we found that the Cronos was a fairly well balanced headset. So here we will judge how different the Bass Boosted edition is and whether its worth your hard earned cash.

Fitted with 40mm drivers, soft Lycra fabric on the headband and ear pads and a large microphone boom, the easy conclusion to make is that the specification and design is practically identical, the primary difference being that the cable is hard-lined, not removable, and there is no carry bag included. Will our testing prove different?

Read full article @ Vortez

Windows 10 Vs Windows 8 Game Performance Review, Major Titles On Microsoft's New OS

Windows 10 is finally here. The new OS has been spit-shined and primed for an official release. As advertised, Windows 8/8.1 users can upgrade to the new operating system, provided that current Win8 installs have been properly activated. Make sure you check our comprehensive Migration Guide for details on upgrades and clean installs.

MSFT's new operating system ushers in a host of new features and functions for media lovers and productivity. Part of the kit and caboodle is a brand new browser, embedded Microsoft Office, Cortana search assistant inclusion and most importantly for us gamers--the introduction of the anxiously-awaited DirectX 12. However, not many (like almost none) of today’s applications and games support the new API just yet.

Read full article @ HotHardware