Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including Windows 7 & Windows 8 vs. Ubuntu 13.04 & Fedora 18, DiskStation DS2413+ NAS Review, WD's Black 4TB hard drive reviewed, Five mSATA Drives, From 30 To 240 GB, and ASUS AiCloud: A Fresh Face for Networking



Windows 7 & Windows 8 vs. Ubuntu 13.04 & Fedora 18 @ Phoronix

Last month Phoronix published Intel OpenGL benchmarks showing Windows 8 outperforming Ubuntu 13.04 with the latest Windows and Linux drivers from Intel. I also showed that even with the KDE and Xfce desktops rather than the default Unity/Compiz desktop to Ubuntu, Windows 8 still was faster on this Intel "Ivy Bridge" platform. The new benchmarks to share today from this Intel Ultrabook are the Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 results but also with performance figures added in from Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 x64 and Fedora 18.

In ensuring a fair and accurate comparison of "Windows vs. Linux" performance for Intel OpenGL graphics, Windows 7 Professional SP1 was installed on the same ASUS Ultrabook using the latest Intel Windows 7 x64 driver, which was version 15.31.3.64.3071 from late March. On the Linux side, in addition to Ubuntu 13.04 and Ubuntu 13.04 Git (the updated Intel Linux driver stack), was Fedora 18 with updates in a stock configuration with the Linux 3.8 kernel, Mesa 9.1, and xf86-video-intel 2.21.5. All benchmarking happened from the same ASUS S56CA-WH31 Ultrabook with an Intel Core i3 3217U "Ivy Bridge" processor boasting HD 4000 graphics.

Read more: Windows 7 & Windows 8 vs. Ubuntu 13.04 & Fedora 18 @ Phoronix

HowTo article: DIY MultiCopter - Part 1 @ Metku.net

The Northern Hemisphere is slowly starting to enjoy the spring and this is best time to start building a radio-controlled copter. During the last couple of years the multicopters have become pretty popular because of reasonable cost and relative ease of flying. What could be finer than to bring the camcorder into the sky and see the neighborhood from a whole new perspective?!

Read more: HowTo article: DIY MultiCopter - Part 1 @ Metku.net

BenQ XL2720T Review @ TechRadar

BenQ has made some of the finest 3D monitors around. Admittedly, that's not necessarily because of how good these screens are at recreating the faux 3D Nvidia wants to jam down our eyeholes, but mainly because of how good they are as general 120Hz screens. Using the LightBoost tech that's accompanied Nvidia's 3D Vision 2 advances, BenQ has been able to create some very impressive 24-inch displays that almost put a dent in our pleasure at seeing so many affordable IPS screens hitting our desktops.

Read more: BenQ XL2720T Review @ TechRadar

HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-inch Mobile Hard Drive Review @ Madshrimps

The Travelstar 7K1000 from HGST is a speedy and silent HDD that should fit in most laptops (has a height of 9.5mm) and offers 1TB of storage at our disposal. The drive features Advanced Format and also best-in-class shock tolerance.

Read more: HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-inch Mobile Hard Drive Review @ Madshrimps

Antec GX700 Case Review @ KitGuru

Today we are going to take a look at the Antec GX700 case, which is one of the latest additions to their range of chassis for gamers. Antec have a reputation for producing a variety of affordable cases which have become very popular over the years, including the 300 and 900 which have found massive favour among the gaming audience.

Read more: Antec GX700 Case Review @ KitGuru

Synology DiskStation DS2413+ NAS Review @ Techspot

Late last year, Synology announced its newest twelve-bay DiskStation DS2413+ for small to medium sized businesses who need loads of storage. Along with supporting up to 48TB worth of drives out of the box, the DS2413+ can be paired with the company's DX1211 expansion enclosure that houses an extra 12 drives, doubling the maximum storage capacity of the base unit to a whopping 96TB.

The DS2413+ is currently the flagship model of the latest x13 Series, featuring more memory and greater storage than any other NAS in the line. A little over a year and a half ago we tested its predecessor, the DS2411+, which also supported the DX1211 expansion enclosure and looked similar to what we have here today -- at least on the outside. It's a different story under the hood.

Read more: Synology DiskStation DS2413+ NAS Review @ Techspot

INEO I-NA321U PLUS Docking Station @ Benchmark Reviews

An external hard drive docking station is a bit of a niche product. Typically, a single-bay docking station can be used to backup and duplicate data from a drive inside your PC. This arrangement can be useful if you require offsite storage for your data, or if you are sharing the large amount of data with another machine. However, creating a true duplicate drive image requires some form of third-party software and usually requires some detailed knowledge of hard drive partitioning.

A dual-bay docking station such as the I-NA321U PLUS is much more versatile, providing the ability to duplicate hard drives without access to the inside of your PC. The I-NA321U PLUS
takes this convenience one step further by providing a single button that adds copy functionality between 2 drives.

Read more: INEO I-NA321U PLUS Docking Station @ Benchmark Reviews

WD's Black 4TB hard drive reviewed @ The Tech Report

Western Digital's Black 4TB the only desktop hard drive to combine that top-of-the-line capacity with a 7,200-RPM spindle speed and five years of warranty coverage. We take a closer look.

Read more: WD's Black 4TB hard drive reviewed @ The Tech Report

Fractal Design Newton R3 1000 Watt 80-PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review @ Hi Tech Legion

While this seems a stretch in computer components, it happens regularly. Product reputations are often built solely on the company they keep, which, in this case, is totally unrelated products from the same manufacturer. Think about it for a second. Company X is a well-known manufacturer of high quality video cards. They have built a reputation of only offering excellent designs with outstanding durability, and have backed it up with outstanding customer support. If Company X decides to introduce a line of RAM, the immediate perception will be that the RAM follows the company line and will be of exceedingly high quality. This perception will persist regardless of the RAM’s actual performance. Even marginal performance will have fans of Company X’s video cards claiming it is the best performing RAM on the market, and reviews will flow with rose colored glasses worn during the testing. We have seen it over and over on products of all shapes and sizes. One company that has yet to stray from its company line, albeit in a small sample size, is Fractal Design. Every case and accessory that we have come into contact with has had all of the fundamental Fractal Design traits intact; excessively high quality at a price far lower than would be expected for the quality and engineering delivered.

No less quality and engineering has gone into the Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W PSU. Right at the start, the Fractal Design Newton R3 hits us with 80-PLUS Platinum efficiency, a single 12v rail capable of 960W and modular cable system. However, the engineering and features of the Newton R3 go well beyond the standard measurements. In the Newton R3, Fractal Design is introducing a semi-passive cooling system which has fan activity only when loads are above 50%, allowing for the quietest possible operation. This is made possible through incredibly efficient design coupled with excellent passive cooling characteristics. This same efficiency allows the Newton R3 to pack a 1000W PSU into a 165mm long chassis without having need for a larger footprint. While the chassis is small, connection options on the Newton R3 are large, with fixed 20+4-pin, 4+4-pin and four 6+2 PCIe, with modular cables adding 12 SATA, five 4-pin peripheral plus an additional 8-pin CPU connector. All modular cables are flat black ribbon cables for ease of routing, with varying lengths to keep cable clutter to a minimum. Six way protection circuitry keeps your equipment out of harm’s way, while Fractal Design backs the Newton R3 1000W with a 5-Year Warranty.

Read more: Fractal Design Newton R3 1000 Watt 80-PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review @ Hi Tech Legion

SuperTalent USB 3.0 Express RC4 64GB Flash Drive Review @ The SSD Review

Back at ceBIT Germany 2013, SuperTalent was kind enough to provide an exclusive sample of their upcoming RC4 flash drive release and we conducted an impromptu review, discovering decent result for the form factor that it is.

We were fortunate to bring that RC4 back to TSSDR and have had the opportunity to conduct a bit more detailed of an analysis. Not yet available for consumer purchase, we have to give you a heads up that this device is a release you might just want to watch for.

The sheer beauty of the SuperTalent USB 3.0 Express RC4 flash drive is that it is one of the few devices that is Microsoft Windows To Go certified and is expected to come with a trial of MS ‘Windows To Go’ on purchase. This means that you can plug the RC4 into any Windows machine and start right from the flash drive, running what is essentially a version of Windows 8. From there, you can then go to any other Windows system, boot the drive once again from the system bios and you are right back in your own OS environment once again.

Read more: SuperTalent USB 3.0 Express RC4 64GB Flash Drive Review @ The SSD Review

HighPoint RocketStor 5322 Dual eSATA 6Gbps Dock Review - True SSD Speed through an External Dock @ The SSD Review

For a storage reviewer, there is no better discovery than something that cuts the time of storage reviews as most can take a week or longer. We first spoke of this in 2010 when we reviewed the Vantec External Dock which didn’t quite meet our needs.

This report examines the HighPoint 5322 Dual eSATA 6Gbps External Dock, along with their RocketRAID 2711 6Gbps RAID card and, to promote this gear as being a game changer just may be an understatement.

The problem was simple. There needed to be a way of temporarily installing SSDs to benchmark on our systems without interrupting the system or taking too much time. Our review of the Vantec External Dock came to a quick halt as we discovered that it could not attain the speeds needed for benchmarking storage media. We eventually found RAID cages that allowed us to hot swap SSDs from the front of the system quickly and easily, however, this didn’t work in situations where we needed to test mSATA SSDs in adapters. It wasn’t until a chance stop at the HighPoint booth, while at ceBIT 2013 Germany, that we found our answer in the HighPoint 5322 Dual eSATA 6Gbps External Dock.

Read more: HighPoint RocketStor 5322 Dual eSATA 6Gbps Dock Review - True SSD Speed through an External Dock @ The SSD Review

Intel SSD 525 Review: Five mSATA Drives, From 30 To 240 GB @ Tom's Hardware

Intel has a new family of mSATA-based SSDs powered by SandForce's second-gen controller. Dubbed the SSD 525, we have all five capacities in our lab. Can the promise of strong performance, 5,000 P/E cycles, and a five-year warranty make up for high prices?

Read more: Intel SSD 525 Review: Five mSATA Drives, From 30 To 240 GB @ Tom's Hardware

ASUS AiCloud: A Fresh Face for Networking @ Bjorn3D

ASUS has had some recent success in the networking side of the industry and much like they do in the motherboard market they are now expanding the network devices to do so much more. This comes to us today to showcase the newest addition in the AiCloud feature so lets see what it has to offer.

Read more: ASUS AiCloud: A Fresh Face for Networking @ Bjorn3D