Best Builds And Best CPUs: Community Roundup

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Community Roundup is here to let you know the best of what's going on in the Tom's Hardware forums on a regular basis.

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Roku Unveils 2016 Streaming Media Players with 4Kp60 and HDR Support

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Roku this week introduced a new family of five streaming media players for various needs and customers. The new affordable players support 1080p HD video streaming and some of them are even compatible with older TVs with composite inputs. The more advanced players support streaming of 4Kp60 content (3840x2160 resolution at 60 fps) and the high-end models even supports HDR10 metadata, which will be useful for those who would like to watch 4Kp60 HDR video and have appropriate TVs.

The fifth generation Roku streaming media players run the proprietary Roku OS and support dozens of video streaming services, including those from Amazon, BBC, Google, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Vudu and so on. The set-top-boxes are self-contained devices that are connected using an HDMI input to TVs and can be operated using bundled remote controls. Depending on video output capabilities and feature set, pricing of the new players ranges from $30 to $130.

The 2016 Roku Streaming Player Lineup
	Express	Express+	Streaming Stick	Premiere	Premiere+	Ultra
SoC	Unknown		Broadcom BCM2836 (quad-core, 900 MHz)	Unknown SoC with four cores and UHD video capabilities.
Storage			256 MB NOR flash	Unknown	Flash microSD USB	Flash microSD USB
Wi-Fi	802.11n			Dual-band 802.11ac with MIMO
Ethernet	None				100 Mbps
Video Output Connector	HDMI 1.4	HDMI 1.4 A/V Out	HDMI 1.4	HDMI 2.0	HDMI 2.0a
Video Output Resolution	720p 1080p	480p 720p 1080p	720p 1080p	1080p 4Kp60
Video Up-Conversion	720p to 1080p on HDTVs	Unknown		720p to 1080p on HDTVs 720p/1080p to 4Kp60 on UHDTVs
HDR	None				HDR10
Audio Output	HDMI	HDMI A/V Out	HDMI			HDMI Optical
Audio Features	Dolby Audio pass through via HDMI					DA pass through via HDMI/optical
Remote	IR		Wi-Fi Direct	IR	Wi-Fi Direct with headphone jack. Player includes IR receiver.	Wi-Fi Direct with headphone jack, voice search. Player includes IR receiver.
USB Media Formats	None				HEVC/H.265 VP9 H.264 AAC MP3 JPG PNG	HEVC/H.265 VP9 H.264 AAC MP3 ALAC FLAC PCM AC3 EAC3 JPG PNG GIF
Power Consumption	< 2.4 W		3 W	< 4.5 W
Price	$30	$40	$50	$80	$100	$130

The most affordable STBs from the new lineup are the Roku Express and Roku Express+ players, which connect to 802.11n Wi-Fi, support up to 1080p video and retail for $30 and $40, respectively. The Roku Express+ version is especially notable here as it's the only new player from the company in the last two years to support RCA composite video for older, pre-HDMI televisions. Meanwhile the Roku Premier series complements the company’s Streaming Stick product released earlier this year, which has similar capabilities, but is more portable and expensive ($50).

The considerably more advanced Roku Premiere, Roku Premiere+ and Roku Ultra are based on more powerful SoCs with four CPU cores to enable 4Kp60 video decoding as well as additional functionality. Furthermore, the premium players also feature Wi-Fi 802.11ac MIMO dual-band connectivity. Among the higher-end players, the Roku Premiere+ and the Roku Ultra also support displaying HDR video via the HDR10 standard (but note that Dolby Vision is not supported). In addition, both players are also equipped with microSD card readers for additional channel storage and USB ports for local playback. The baseline 4Kp60 Premiere STB goes for $80, while the HDR-capable Premier+ player costs $100. Meanwhile, the top-of-the-range Roku Ultra is available for $130. For additional $30, owners will get a more advanced remote with a speaker (for the lost remote finder feature), a digital optical audio port as well as improved support for lossless audio formats like ALAC or FLAC (but no Dolby Atmos).

The new Roku Express, Roku Premiere, Roku Premiere+ and Roku Ultra STBs will be available in stores on October 9 and can be pre-ordered immediately. The Roku Express+ will be sold exclusively at Walmart.

Gallery: Roku Unveils Streaming Media Players with 4Kp60 and HDR Support

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Best Laptops: Q3 2016

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Coming to the end of Q3, there’s been a nice refresh of many laptops. Intel has recently launched their first Kaby Lake processors in their U and Y series, which are dual-core low wattage versions. Skylake is still the current processor for any of the quad-core and higher wattage CPUs. In addition, NVIDIA has recently released their first Pascal graphics cards for laptops, but only at the high end for gaming laptops.

For a full dive into Kaby Lake, check out our coverage here, and for Pascal updates, check out this article.

Low Cost Laptops

Low cost has a whole new meaning now. With Microsoft changing the pricing on Windows for low cost devices, it has opened up a new PC competitor to the Chromebook. There are plenty of compromises with devices that cost at or around $200, especially the TN displays, but performance is enough for light work.

HP Stream 11

HP has once again updated the HP Stream that they launched a couple of years ago. The pop of color sets this apart from a lot of the other devices around, and despite the low price, the build quality is pretty good. The TN display is the biggest detractor, along with the low amount of eMMC storage, but with Windows 10 the 32 GB is sufficient for the OS and you can add a microSD card for extra apps and data storage. The 11.6” model still features Braswell with the Celeron N3060, but HP has double the RAM to 4 GB which should be a nice boost from the 2 GB they had before. They’ve even added a USB-C port, even though it’s only USB 3.0 speed, and the horrible single-channel wireless has been upgraded to a 2x2 802.11ac NIC. I’d like HP to offer a better display, and more storage, but still for $199 this is a pretty decent laptop, and it’s gotten a lot better without the price going up.

Buy HP Stream 11 on Amazon.com

ThinkPad 11e

Built for education, but still offering some of the “must haves” in a notebook, the ThinkPad 11e costs about double the HP Stream 11, but can be had with up to a Core i3-6100U which is going to offer a lot more performance than the Stream’s Atom processor. It also is only available with SSD storage, unlike most of the notebooks in this price range. You can get 128, 192, or 256 GB of SATA SSD. The 42 Wh battery should offer decent battery life, and it comes with the Intel 802.11ac wireless card. The big letdown is the 1366x768 TN display, but to get to this price you’re going to have to give something up. At less than $500 starting, it offers decent value.

Buy Lenovo ThinkPad 11E N3150 8GB 128GB on Amazon.com

Ultrabooks

Utrabooks have moved the laptop forward, with sleek and thin designs that still feature good performance with the Core i-U series processors, and even thinner and lighter models are available with the Core m-Y series models. The definition has expanded somewhat over the years, but a good Ultrabook will have at least a 1920x1080 IPS display, SSD storage, and over eight hours of battery life, with many of them over ten now. If I was to recommend an everyday notebook, it would be an Ultrabook. The traditional laptop form factor is less compromised for notebook tasks than most of the 2-in-1 designs, and there are some great choices now.

HP Spectre

HP launched a new entrant in the Ultrabook category with the “world’s thinnest laptop” which they are calling the Spectre. It’s not quite the lightest, but the 2.45 lbs is a very low weight, and the design is stunning. U series Core processors are available with 8 GB of memory, and HP has gone with PCI-E storage in 256 or 512 GB offerings. The display is a 1920x1080 IPS model at 13.3-inches.  The very thin design has precluded the use of USB-A though, but the Spectre does have three USB-C ports, with two of them capable of Thunderbolt 3. The Spectre is just 10.4 mm thick, yet despite this they have still included a keyboard with a solid 1.3 mm of travel. The Spectre starts at $1169.99, which is a lot, but it’s a stunner.

Buy HP Spectre i7-6500U 8GB 256GB on Amazon.com

Dell XPS 13

The reigning Ultrabook on the best-of lists is generally the Dell XPS 13. The Infinity Display makes it stand apart, with very thin bezels packing a large display into a small chassis. The downside of this is the webcam, which is mounted on the bottom of the display, which might make this a non-starter for people who do a lot of video chat, but despite this, Dell has crafted a great machine here. Dell has recently updated this to a Kaby Lake processor, up to the Core i7-7500U. The outgoing model did offer Iris graphics on the i7 version, but not right away, so we’ll see if Dell brings back this option once the Iris Kaby Lake processors are available. They’ve also switched from Broadcom NICs to Killer, because Broadcom is exiting the market. They now quote up to 22 hours of battery life on the 1080p model thanks to more efficiency with Kaby Lake as well as a 60 Wh battery, up from 56 Wh last year. I love the aluminum outside with the black carbon fibre weave on the keyboard deck, and the black keys make the backlighting stand out with great contrast. The XPS 13 starts at $799 for the i3 model.

Buy the XPS 13 on Dell.com

ASUS UX305CA

ASUS packs a lot into the UX305CA, and you likely get more Ultrabook for the money with this model than pretty much any other. At a MSRP of just $699, the UX305CA features a Skylake Core m3 processor, 8 GB of memory, and 256 GB of SSD storage. ASUS hasn’t yet announced an updated version of this, but the Skylake version still offers plenty of value. Compare that to a Dell XPS 13 which is hundreds more to get a model with that much RAM and storage. The Core m CPU is plenty for most tasks, and with the 4.5 W TDP you get the advantage of a fanless device. ASUS includes a 1920x1080 IPS display as well. If you want a thin and light, all aluminum laptop, but don’t want to break the bank, the ASUS UX305CA needs to be highly considered.

Buy ASUS ZenBook UX305CA (Core m3/8GB/256GB) on Amazon.com

Razer Blade Stealth

Razer has also updated the Stealth with Kaby Lake, and even more importantly they’ve increased the battery capacity as well. The Razer Blade Stealth is a fantastic notebook that was hindered by its battery life, and the new model should offer at least a bit longer time away from the mains. This CNC aluminum notebook mimics the larger Razer Blade 14 in appearance, yet is very thin and light. I also like that Razer offers just a single CPU choice in the Core i7-7500U, and now has 16 GB of memory, but they didn’t increase the starting price of $999. It’s also the only laptop on this list to feature per-key RGB backlighting on the keyboard, allowing some pretty nifty looks. It can be connected to the Razer Core external graphics dock with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable as well, which is going to offer a massive boost in gaming performance when docked. I really like what Razer is doing in this market, and their pricing is very competitive.

Buy the Razer Blade Stealth on Razerzone.com

MacBook

Love it or hate it, the MacBook is the only Mac to make the list this go-around. Apple updated it to use Skylake Core m CPUs, and although I would expect the rest of their lineup to be updated soon, possibly to Kaby Lake, this is the only current generation CPU based MacBook at the moment. The display is great, and Apple continues to buck the trend and use 16:10 aspect ratio displays. Apple’s MacBook keyboard is a big change from normal laptops, leveraging butterfly switches to keep the travel consistent despite having a very short throw. The trackpad has no click action at all, and instead uses haptic feedback. The biggest controversy is the single USB-C port, which is also the charging port, but despite this the Retina display and fanless design make it a great portable laptop if you need a Mac. It’s pretty hard to recommend the Air at this point, since it still features a low resolution TN display and old processors.

Buy MacBook Core m3 256GB on Amazon.com

Convertibles

As much as I love an Ultrabook when I need a true laptop experience, there are some great convertible devices out there too which can serve multiple roles. They may not be the best laptop and they may not be the best tablet, but they can generally handle either chore well enough.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

The best convertible is the Surface Pro 4. This 12.3-inch tablet has basically created the 2-in-1 tablet market, with many competitors now creating similar devices, from Dell to Google and Apple. The Surface Pro 4 certainly sets the bar high compared to the other Windows based devices, and with the legacy software support, is highly productive. All the changes from the Surface Pro 3 to the Surface Pro 4 are subtle, with a slightly larger display in the same chassis size, higher resolution, and Skylake processors, but there are new features too like the lightning fast Windows Hello facial recognition camera. Possibly the best new feature is an accessory, with the new Type Cover offering edge to edge keys and a much larger glass trackpad, meaning the Surface Pro 4 can double as a laptop much better than any previous model could. Starting with the Core m3 processor, the Surface Pro 4 starts at $899, but the more popular Core i5 version with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage costs $1199 without the Type Cover. It’s not the most inexpensive 2-in-1, but it’s a leader in this category.

Buy Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Core i5/8GB/256GB on Amazon.com

Microsoft Surface Book

Software issues plagued the Surface Book at launch, but Microsoft has seemed to sort all of them out. The Surface Book is now easily recommended as a great 2-in-1 if you need something that’s more of a laptop than a tablet. The 13.5-inch 3:2 display with it’s 3000x2000 resolution is one of the best displays on a laptop, with a sharp resolution and great contrast. Performance is solid too with either a Core i5-6300U or Core i7-6600U, and you can also get discrete NVIDIA graphics with a custom GT 940M. It’s not a gaming powerhouse, but the NVIDIA option is pretty much double the integrated performance. The all magnesium body gives the Surface Book a great look and feel, and the keyboard and trackpad are some of the best on any Ultrabook as well. The Surface Book is not perfect though; the device is heavier than traditional Ultrabooks and the weight balance makes it feel heavier than it is. Also, there’s the price, which starts at $1349 and goes all the way up to $3199 for a Core i7 with 16 GB of memory, 1 TB of SSD storage, and the dGPU. Still, it’s got solid performance, good battery life, and a great detachable tablet.

Buy Microsoft Surface Book i5/8GB/128GB on Amazon.com

Lenovo Yoga 910

Lenovo pretty much invented the flip-around convertible with their Yoga series, and the latest Yoga 910 takes it all to the next level. It features Kaby Lake processors, up to Core i7-7500U, along with up to 16 GB of memory, and it keeps the fantastic watch band hinge introduced on the Yoga 3 Pro. The big upgrade this year are new displays, with edge to edge displays similar to the XPS 13. They’ve increased the panel size from 13.3” to 13.9” and offer both a 1920x1080 IPS panel as well as a 3840x2160 IPS panel. I would assume this means the RGBW subpixel arrangement is also gone, which should help out a lot on color accuracy and contrast. It is available in three colors, starting at $1299 and will be available in October.

Large Laptops

For some people, a 13.3-inch or 14-inch laptop is just too small. Maybe they need more performance, and the quad-core chips in larger laptops and better discrete GPUs are necessary. Maybe they just like the larger display. There are some great large form factor laptops that are available too.

Dell XPS 15

Dell took the winning formula with the XPS 13 and applied it to their larger XPS 15, and the result is a great looking laptop, which has a 15.6-inch display in a smaller than normal chassis. The XPS 15 features quad-core 45-Watt Intel Core processors, and the NVIDIA GTX 960M discrete graphics card, which is a big jump in performance over what’s available in any Ultrabook. You can get a UHD display with 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut as well, although the battery life takes a big hit with that many pixels, so the base 1920x1080 offering may be better suited to those that need a bit more time away from the power outlet. The keyboard and trackpad are both excellent, just like the XPS 13, and it features the same styling cues. The XPS 15 starts at $999.

Buy the XPS 15 on Dell.com

ASUS ZenBook UX501VW

ASUS makes some pretty fantastic looking aluminum notebooks in their ZenBook series, and the UX501VW is a great looking 15-inch notebook. It comes with a Core i7-6700HQ and GTX 960M, so performance will be excellent, and ASUS offers both 1920x1080, and 3840x2160 IPS display choices. It weighs in at 2.06 kg, which is decent for a notebook this size. ASUS generally comes in a bit less expensive than an XPS 15 as well.

Buy ASUS ZenBook UX501VW UHD on Amazon.com

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Enermax ETS-T50 Axe CPU Air Cooler Review

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Enermax keeps up its onslaught of CPU air cooler designs today with a ... Once again we have an integrated GPU in our processor which alleviates ...

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Acer Predator 17 X Review: 4K for Gamers

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This hefty gaming notebook packs a desktop-class graphics card, an impressive 4K display, blazing fast quad-core processor and an even faster SSD .... In terms of standard gaming at the default CPU and GPU clock speeds, the ...

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'Forza Horizon 3' PC Performance Guide: 5 Tips For Better Framerate And Less Stuttering

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Processor Priority: With Forza Horizon 3 open, open the task manager by ... Next you need to disable Core 0 in the affinity CPU settings menu.

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CPCI blade hosts 16-core CPU, Radeon graphics

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Adlink's cPCI-6940 6U CompactPCI processor blade with Intel Xeon processor D-1500 and AMD Radeon E8860 Embedded GPU offers offers a ...

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Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 410E and 600E series processors for IoT devices

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The chip-maker hopes to take this momentum further in the Internet of Things space with new processors. It has now announced the Snapdragon ...

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MediaTek Announced Three New Processors For The Smartphone market -- Helio X30, P25 and P20

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During the event, they officially announced three new processors, The Helio X30, Helio P20 and Helio P25. The most powerful amongst these three ...

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Best Gaming Workstation Build Under $1500 [October 2016]

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Photo and video editing applications require fast and powerful processors to do things like manipulate photos or encode videos while gaming also ...

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Qualcomm Brings Snapdragon 600E, 410E Processors for IoT

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Recently, Qualcomm's subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. announced the launch of its two new Snapdragon processors - 600E and 410E - for ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E and 410E Designed for Embedded Computing, Internet of Things ...

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NewswireToday - /newswire/ - San Diego, CA, United States, 2016/09/28 - Powerful, Energy-Efficient Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Processors for ...

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D-Wave Systems previews a 2000-qubit quantum processor

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The new processor doubles the number of qubits over the previous ... to in an energy minimisation solution in physics – the computer finds the optimal, ...

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Qualcomm Brings Snapdragon 600E, 410E Processors for IoT

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Recently, Qualcomm's subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. announced the launch of its two new Snapdragon processors – 600E and 410E – for ...

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CAN-to-USB and GPIO modules

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The Nano Server NN box PC is based on the Intel Q-170 chipset and 6th generation Intel Core processors of the Desktop and the low-power Desktop ...

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Nvidia showcases Xavier SoC, an AI supercomputer for cars

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The main components of this SoC are; a custom octa-core ARM CPU, a GPU with 512 next-generation Volta stream processors, a new computer ...

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Enthusiast Culture: The most memorable overclocking-friendly CPUs

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#ThrowbackThursday Enthusiasts' early overclocking endeavors involved soldering and replacing crystal clock oscillators, but evolving standards brought more accessible means to change system bus speeds, while the most daring would gain boosts through hard modding. These are but a few of the landmark processors revered for their overclocking prowess.





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Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E and 410E Processors Launched for IoT-Related Applications

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Qualcomm on Wednesday launched the Snapdragon 600E and Snapdragon 410E processors for embedded computing and Internet of Things (IoT) ...

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This is what happens when building a gaming PC goes terribly wrong

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While most modern CPUs have safeguards against overheating, high operating temperatures can drastically shorten the lifespan of a processor or ...

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AMD Vega 10 2017 Release: Amazing features, specs to expect

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The company's new graphics processor will be expected to hit the stores ... AMD's Vega 10 is out to replace the Fiji graphics processors of the Fury ...

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New Amazon Fire TV Stick Now Available For Preorder: Alexa Voice Remote, Quad-Core ...

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The Amazon Fire TV media stick rocks a four-core processor that should deliver 30 percent increased speed over the former dual core CPU. Amazon also bolstered the Wi-Fi, taking it from 802.11n to 802.11ac. What is more, a new ...

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This tiny Nvidia supercomputer will power self-driving cars

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Self-driving cars are the future, and Nvidia wants in. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced today at the inaugural GPU Technology Conference Europe that the company is developing a simplified supercomputer that can power self-driving cars.

The supercomputer, called Xavier, is a system-on-chip (SoC) design that features both CPU and GPU on a single chip. Nvidia worked hard to shrink the silicon down to minimize space and maximize efficiency.

Xavier features eight Nvidia CPUs and 512 CUDA Cores. It's those CUDA Cores that allow a specialized programming language to leverage the GPU to perform tasks with greater performance, which are needed for the complex systems in a self-driving car. The chip includes a pair of 8K resolution video processors to help chew threw video feeds from a self-driving car's camera system.

Nvidia's Xavier supercomputer can perform 20 trillion operations per second while only consuming 20 watts of power. For reference, Nvidia's previous self-driving car chip, the DRIVE PX2 used in Volvo's fleet of self-driving XC90 SUVs, is capable of the same 20 trillion operations per second, but is more than twice as big and requires 250 watts of power.

The future of cars

While Nvidia is most known for its graphics cards, the company has experimented with bringing its chips to cars for some time now. The Tesla Model S features a head unit that's powered by Nvidia chips, and today Nvidia announced that it partnered with navigation company TomTom to provide real-time localized mapping data for cars.

The Xavier supercomputer may have been teased today, but it'll be a year before samples even begin shipping to automakers and research institutions. Though it will still be some time before we see Nvidia-powered self-driving cars on the road, the groundwork is being laid now.

Self-driving cars are a long-term bet for Nvidia, but the investment in automotive technology shows the company is serious about powering the automotive industry into the future.

• These are the 10 best graphics cards in the world

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Buying Guide: The 7 best PC cases: top cases for your next gaming machine

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Introduction

It's tempting to dismiss PC cases as big black boxes, but that's dismissing huge swathes of the market – and one of your system's most important components.

There's a huge amount of variety and quality in every corner of the market. At the top are the full-tower behemoths that can house the fastest components and the most extensive cooling setups, and normal-sized towers sit just below – and can also accommodate huge amounts of hardware.

The case market isn't just towers, either. Micro-ATX enclosures cut a fine balance between the size and versatility of towers and the svelter dimensions of smaller cases, and mini-ITX products can squeeze into the smallest gaps on a desk or beneath a TV.

The choice, understandably, can be daunting. That's why we've scythed through the hundreds of cases out there to pick six of the best in six different categories – so every kind of system is catered for.

1. Corsair Obsidian 900D

Huge, versatile and well-made – it's a market-leader, but it's expensive

Type: Big Tower | Dimensions: 252 x 692 x 650mm | Weight: 18.6kg | Features: Colour: Black; Motherboard Support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 9 x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 4 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 3 x 120mm front, 1 x 140mm rear PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 2 x USB 3, 4 x USB 2, 2 x audio; Special Features: Total water-cooling support, dual-PSU support, hot-swap drive mounts, 15 fan locations

See more Corsair Obsidian 900D deals

Huge amount of space

Room for bespoke cooling setups

Prohibitively high price

The largest product in Corsair's Obsidian range, the 900D, is a vast, uncompromising aluminium unit that caters for the world's most demanding hardware.

It supports the largest motherboards, and it's big enough to handle the chunkiest CPU coolers and graphics cards. It has a broad set of storage options, and it's just as accommodating with cooling – it can support any configuration of water-cooling hardware and a baffling array of fans.

The Obsidian pairs its versatile, high-end design with the brooding good looks associated with brushed aluminium.

The 900D has every feature a high-end builder needs, but it has caveats too. This case is very expensive, and it's overkill for anyone who isn't building a benchmark-busting, high-end rig. It'll also be heavy and take up a vast amount of room once it's constructed.

2. BitFenix Shinobi XL

A case that handles powerful hardware without breaking the bank

Type: Full Tower | Dimensions: 245 x 557 x 570mm | Weight: 12.6kg | Features: Colour: Black/White; Motherboard Support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 8 x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 5 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 1 x 230mm front, 1 x 120mm rear, 1 x 230mm top PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 5 x USB 3, 2 x audio; Special Features: Total water-cooling support, moveable hard disk cage, soft-touch matt finish

See more BitFenix Shinobi XL deals

Room for high-end components

Versatile storage array

A little louder than rivals

Still too large for modest builds

This chassis isn't as vast as the Corsair, but that's good – it'll be smaller, lighter and more manageable. It's still got the space to handle high-end hardware, from ATX motherboards to huge CPU coolers.

It can handle long graphics cards, too, and the hard disk cage can be removed to accommodate several extra-long GPUs. There's huge room for storage, oversized fans are included, and it can also handle most water-cooling configurations.

BitFenix uses soft-touch plastic to help the Shinobi XL stand out from rivals, but don't worry about build quality – the plastic is solid and the steel beneath doesn't budge. It has more front ports than rivals, too. As with the Corsair, a chassis this big isn't always necessary, especially for a modest build – but this is an impressive, feature-packed tower.

3. Fractal Design Define R5

Smart and quiet, it's got the size to handle mid-range rigs

Type: Mid Tower | Dimensions: 232 x 521 x 421mm | Weight: 10.7kg | Features: Colour: Black/Titanium/White; Motherboard Support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 8 x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 2 x 2.5-inch, 2 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 1 x 140mm front, 1 x 140mm rear PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 2 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x audio; Special Features: Noise-reduction material, supports 420mm water-cooling radiators, removable HDD and ODD cages, fan controller

See more Fractal Design Define R5 deals

Impressive noise-cancelling features

Smart, subtle exterior design

Less room for high-end cooling

Fewer fan mounts

This mid-tower case is ideal for building an ATX system that doesn't need extensive cooling or multiple graphics cards.

The metal used throughout is smart and minimal, and its side panels are coated with sound-absorbing material in order to reduce noise. The fans are also designed for low-noise, and their speed can be altered with a three-stage controller.

The hard disk cage is full of solid metal caddies, and it's removable in two stages – handy, as larger graphics cards may be blocked if the cage is left installed. This case supports water-cooling hardware, but there's not as much room as other models – the R5 is capable with pre-built liquid coolers, but proper bespoke loops with large radiators and reservoirs will be better accommodated elsewhere.

It doesn't quite have the chops for powerful high-end builds, but this is a smart, subtle and versatile tower for mid-range ATX rigs.

4. NZXT Manta

Its curved good looks impress, but this case isn't cheap

Type: Mini-ITX | Dimensions: 245 x 450 x 426mm | Weight: 7.2kg | Features: Colour: Black; Motherboard Support: Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 2 x 3.5-inch, 3 x 2.5-inch; Fans Included: 2 x 120mm front, 1 x 120mm rear PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 2 x USB 3, 2 x audio; Special Features: Curved steel panels, 280mm water-cooling radiator support

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Stunning curved metal design

Surprisingly versatile for mini-ITX

Larger than most mini-ITX cases

Pricier than most, too

This mini-ITX enclosure stands apart from rivals thanks to its curved steel panels. The subtly arcing shape helps the Manta look different, but NZXT also says it has practical applications – chiefly, more room to store excess cables.

The Manta supports Mini-ITX motherboards, which come with pros and cons. They're able to handle the most powerful CPUs and graphics cards, but they can only accommodate one card and don't have the wealth of connectors found on ATX or micro-ATX boards. That makes them ideal for gaming or home machines that won't need many upgrades.

That said, the Manta does a fine job – it supports ATX power supplies and 280mm pre-built liquid-coolers, and has enough room for huge graphics cards and sizeable CPU heatsinks. It has ample room for storage, and includes several fans. It's not the smallest mini-ITX case, but it's one of the best-looking and most versatile.

5. Phanteks Enthoo Evolv MATX

Stunning, strong and with features that punch above its weight

Type: Micro-ATX | Dimensions: 230 x 400 x 450mm | Weight: 9kg | Features: Colour: Black/Grey/White; Motherboard Support: Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 3 x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 2 x 2.5-inch, 1 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 1 x 200mm front, 1 x 140mm rear PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 2 x USB 3, 2 x audio; Special Features: Fan hub, replacement power LEDs

See more Phanteks Enthoo Evolv MATX deals

Sturdy aluminium throughout

Versatile features

Expensive for micro-ATX

Awkward for high-end cooling

The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv marks the mid-way point between taller towers and tiny mini-ITX enclosures. It's a good bit of the market to occupy: its conventional tower design means it still has ample features and space, but it's still smaller than full-size cases.

The Evolv's doors swing open to reveal a smart interior. Full-size PSUs and cables sit beneath a shroud that keeps the system tidy, and storage slides into a metal cage at the front. Cable-routing is simple and many panels pull away with quick-release mechanisms.

The aluminium looks fantastic and offers rock-solid build quality, and it's capable on the cooling front – this case comes with a 200mm front fan, and can handle modest liquid-cooling units and more conventional air-cooling hardware. It can even be used for bespoke liquid cooling, although more disassembly is required.

There's little wrong with the Evolv. It's more expensive than other micro-ATX cases, but it justifies that price by balancing a great range of features and laudable versatility with sturdy, good-looking design.

6. Lian-Li PC-V355B

A tiny aluminium chassis that offers surprisingly versatility

Type: Cube | Dimensions: 283 x 386 x 263mm | Weight: 3.7kg | Features: Colour: Black/Silver; Motherboard Support: Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 3 x 3.5-inch, 1 x 2.5-inch, 1 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 1 x 120mm front PSU; Support: ATX Ports: 2 x USB 3, 2 x audio; Special Features: Slide-out motherboard tray

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Removeable motherboard tray

mATX and mini-ITX motherboards

Not as smart as some rivals

Modest cooling capabilities

Cube cases are ideal for several scenarios: modest office machines, media systems that sit next to a TV, or even gaming. Lian-Li's PC-V355B is a smart-looking cube with the versatility to handle all of these situations.

It accepts micro-ATX and mini-ITX motherboards, which makes it surprisingly versatile considering its diminutive dimensions. It looks good, too – a subtle box of sturdy brushed aluminium available in black or silver – although some might not like its lines and corners.

The fans are mounted on anti-vibration screws to cut down noise, and the motherboard tray can slide out to aid installation – a boon when so many small cases are so fiddly. The Lian-Li can handle a single SSD and three hard disks and it'll also fit reasonably large graphics cards.

There's enough space here to build a machine with the grunt to handle work and play with equal competence – and the Lian-Li won't take up room while doing it.

7. Aerocool X-Predator II

State-of-the-art expansion for when a standard ATX just doesn't cut it

Type: Full Tower | Dimensions: 232 x 559 x 595mm | Weight: 13.34kg | Features: Color: Black/White; Motherboard Support: E-ATX, XL-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX; Drive Bays: 8 x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 3 x 5.25-inch; Fans Included: 2 x 140mm top, 2 x 140mm front, 1 x 140mm rear, 1 x 140mm bottom; Support: ATX Ports: 4 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 2 x audio; Special Features: HDD dock, external fan control, dual-water cooling support

Aerocool X-Predator II

Lots of expansion

Top-end airflow

Great value

Fairly standard otherwise

Comprising eight internal HDD trays, six USB ports, headphone and mic jacks as well as ten total expansion slots, the extended ATX X-Predator II lives up to the name with an intimidating demeanor that refuses to compromise on top-end airflow techniques.

Internally, the X-Predator II is fairly typical, but at a value that's hard to resist considering the sheer size and embedded functionality of the chassis. Most notable is the design choice to include two pre-installed 140mm fans at the top of the X-Predator II in addition to the nearly toolless barrier of entry.

On the outside, Aerocool has devised a premium feel to its convenience factors. For instance, if you need extra storage on the fly, you don't even have to open the unit up. Simply dock a 3.5- or 2.5-inch hard drive at the peak of the chassis and you're good to go.

Ultimately, the Aerocool X-Predator II is one of the best cases money can buy if you're lugging around a graphics card or two that, otherwise, just wouldn't fit in a regular ATX enclosure.

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AMD has its eyes on Las Vegas with Polaris GPUs

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The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E is an integrated chip with quad-core 32-bit ARM-based processors. It has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and GPS ...

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AMD has its eyes on Las Vegas with Polaris GPUs

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The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E is an integrated chip with quad-core 32-bit ARM-based processors. It has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and GPS ...

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E4 Computer Engineering Announces Availability of E4 OP206

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“The POWER8 with NVIDIA NVLink processor enables incredible speed of data transfer between CPUs and GPUs ideal for emerging workloads like ...

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New Amazon Fire TV stick brings quad-core CPU, Alexa Remote, and AC Wi-Fi

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Stunning video quality – With an ultra-fast quad-core processor, 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi and Advanced Streaming and Prediction (ASAP) for Amazon ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E and 410E Designed for Embedded Computing, Internet of Things ...

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Qualcomm Technologies has utilized its mobile investment in Snapdragon processors to introduce solutions for product categories beyond ...

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How AMD's powerful Zen chip flouts the SoC stereotype

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Qualcomm Mobilizes in Embedded Processors

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ADLINK Launches cPCI-6940 6U CompactPCI® Processor Blade with Intel® Xeon® Processor D ...

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The cPCI-6940 6U CompactPCI processor blade offers up to 16-core ... Featuring the Intel® Xeon® processor D-1500, the latest server-grade CPU ...

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NVIDIA introduces Xavier SoCbased on Volta - for Autonomous Transportation

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... a custom 8 core CPU architecture, and a new computer vision accelerator. You could look at the SoC as next-gen Tegra. The processor will deliver ...

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Best Android Phones: Q3 2016

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After the usual summer respite, our Q3 2016 Best Android Smartphones guide arrives in the middle of the fall frenzy, which has already produced a number of new phones, including the Samsung Galaxy Note7, Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Honor 8, the new modular Moto Z family from Motorola, and even a new brand from Huawei—Nova—to name just a few. There’s still several high-profile products still to come too, such as the LG V20, two new Nexus phones, and a new Mate phablet from Huawei. Several of the Chinese OEMs are also releasing some interesting phones at reasonable prices that will interest our international readers.

Keeping in mind that our guide only includes phones that we’ve reviewed, and that we do not have the bandwidth to review every phone that’s available, here are the Android phones we currently like.

Best Android Phablet: Samsung Galaxy Note5

Until Samsung sorts out the Galaxy Note7’s battery issue, the Note5 remains our top phablet choice. Its 5.7-inch 2560x1440 SAMOLED display is still one of the best available, with excellent black levels, reasonably good brightness, and several different display modes ranging from a very accurate sRGB mode to a couple of wider gamut modes with more vivid colors. Its 16MP rear camera with PDAF and OIS is also one of the best we’ve tested. The Note7’s camera focuses and snaps photos more quickly, and produces better images in low-light scenes, but the Note5’s camera still has the edge in daytime image quality.

Buy Samsung Galaxy Note5 (32GB, Black) on Amazon.com

The Note5’s Exynos 7420 SoC was the first to use Samsung’s 14nm LPE FinFET process, and its four ARM Cortex-A57 CPU cores running at up to 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores running at up to 1.5GHz still delivers quick performance. Its 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM gives Samsung’s memory hungry TouchWiz UI some extra room to work.

The piece of hardware that really makes Samsung’s Note line unique is the S-Pen. Being able to jot down notes, sketch pictures, sign documents, annotate screenshots, and select and manipulate text with the active stylus make the Note5 a good choice for people who use their phone for work as well as communication and killing time. Just be sure not to insert it into its silo backwards, or you’ll have to break the phone to get it back out.

People have a love/hate relationship with TouchWiz, and while some questionable design elements remain and it suffers from some performance hiccups, it does include some useful phablet features, including the ability to shrink the whole screen by pressing the home button three times, the option to use a smaller keyboard for one-handed thumb typing, and the two-pane Multi Window feature that allows you to work in two apps at the same time. The Note5 should receive an update to Android 7 at some point in the future, but Samsung has not set an exact date.​

Best High-End Android Smartphones: Galaxy S7 and HTC 10

Earlier this year, Samsung released its seventh generation Galaxy S series. The Galaxy S7 improves upon the design and features of the popular Galaxy S6. The design is very similar, but Samsung has tweaked the curvature of the back, edges, and cover glass to make the phone significantly more ergonomic. The chassis does get thicker and heavier, but this allows for a significant reduction to the camera hump and an increase in battery capacity.

Buy Samsung Galaxy S7 (Intl) on Amazon.com

As far as specs go, the Galaxy S7 comes in two versions. Both have 5.1-inch 2560x1440 SAMOLED displays, 32GB or 64GB of UFS 2.0 NAND, 4GB of LPDDR4 memory, a 12MP Sony IMX260 camera with a f/1.7 aperture, and a 3000mAh battery. Depending on where you live you'll either get Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 or Samsung's Exynos 8890 SoC, both of which use custom ARM CPU cores. More specifically, the US, Japan, and China versions receive Snapdragon 820, while the rest of the world gets Exynos 8890.

Regardless of which Galaxy S7 you get, you'll be getting the best hardware that Samsung has to offer. The Galaxy S6 was a good phone, but it was not perfect. The S7 addresses several of these shortcomings with a more ergonomic design, a larger battery, support for microSD cards, and the return of IP68 dust and water protection.

Buy HTC 10 (32GB) on Amazon.com

The other phone worth discussing at the high end is the HTC 10, which manages to best the Galaxy S7 in at least a few areas. In terms of audio quality, design, OEM UI, and other areas like perceptual latency I would argue that HTC is just clearly ahead of Samsung. HTC also has proper USB 3.1 and USB-C support, which does make the device more future-proof than the Galaxy S7’s microUSB connector in that regard. The front facing camera is also just clearly better on the basis of having OIS and optics that can actually focus on a subject instead of being set to infinity at all times.

However, Samsung is clearly ahead in display and the camera is clearly the fastest I’ve ever seen in any phone, bar none. Samsung is also just clearly shipping better WiFi implementations right now in terms of antenna sensitivity and software implementation, along with IP68 water resistance and magstripe payments for the US and South Korea.

To further muddy the waters, there are areas where HTC and Samsung trade blows. While Samsung’s camera is clearly faster, HTC often has better detail in their images, especially at the center of the frame but the Galaxy S7 has better detail at the edge of the frame. Noise reduction tends to be a bit less heavy-handed and sharpening artifacts aren’t nearly as strong as it is on the Galaxy S7. HTC’s larger sensor also means that it’s possible to get actual dSLR-like bokeh with macro shots, which is honestly something that I’ve never seen before in any smartphone camera ever.

Overall, I think it’s pretty fair to say that the HTC 10 is a solid choice. If I had to pick between the two I would probably lean towards the HTC 10, but this is based upon personal priorities. I don’t think you can really go wrong between the two. The HTC 10 is currently 699 USD when bought unlocked through HTC with Carbon Gray and Glacial Silver with 32 GB of internal storage, which is a bit more than the Galaxy S7 but considering how smartphones are often used for 2-3 years now I don’t think 50 dollars should be a major point in favor or against a phone.

Best Mid-Range Android Smartphone: OnePlus 3

Buy Oneplus 3 6GB/64GB on Amazon.com

The OnePlus 3, with its list of impressive hardware at a reasonable price, is still our (upper) mid-range choice. The Motorola Moto Z Play Droid is about the same price and includes a nice display, a good camera, and a large battery—not to mention support for Moto Mods such as the Hasselblad True Zoom Mod—but its eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores and Adreno 506 GPU cannot offer the same level of performance as the OnePlus 3’s Snapdragon 820 SoC. The Moto Z Play Droid also comes with less RAM (3GB), less internal storage (32GB), and lacks 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Its little brother, the Moto G4 Plus costs less than the OnePlus 3—$299 for 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal NAND—but again falls short of the OnePlus 3’s overall user experience.

Huawei’s Honor 8 is another contender that costs the same as the OnePlus 3 and is available in the US and internationally. We’re not far enough into our review to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down, but it’s a nice looking phone with decent specs. It also has a smaller 5.2-inch display, giving it a smaller footprint than the OnePlus 3.

When we first looked at the OnePlus 3, Brandon discovered that the display’s grayscale and color accuracy were quite poor, its video quality was subpar, and it evicted apps from RAM too aggressively, especially considering that it comes with 6GB of LPDDR4; however, in subsequent software updates OnePlus has either fixed or improved each of these issues.

The build quality of the OnePlus 3 is excellent, its 16MP rear camera with PDAF and OIS takes nice photos, and its Snapdragon 820 SoC delivers good performance. It also includes 64GB of internal UFS 2.0 NAND storage but no microSD slot, and the usual array of wireless connectivity options including NFC—something the OnePlus 2 lacked. The OnePlus 3 comes in only one configuration and costs $399.

Best Budget Android Smartphones: Huawei Honor 5X (US) and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro

While the rest of the planet is awash with lower-cost phones containing decent hardware, it’s difficult to recommend a budget smartphone for the US market. Take the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro, for example. Its Snapdragon 650 SoC contains two high-performance Cortex-A72 CPU cores running at up to 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.4GHz, which easily outperforms the standard octa-core A53 SoCs common at this price point. Its performance is really quite remarkable, rivaling some upper mid-range and flagship devices. The Adreno 510 GPU supports the latest graphics APIs, including support for tessellation, and is fast enough to play most games currently available. Battery life is excellent too, thanks in part to a large 4050 mAh battery. There’s even an infrared blaster and support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi and FM radio.

Of course some sacrifices need to be made to reach such a low price. The Redmi Note 3 Pro’s weakest component is its 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display, whose poor black level and inaccurate white point and gamma calibration hurt image quality. The panel’s backlight does not fully cover the sRGB gamut, which further reduces color accuracy. While not perfect, it clearly moves the bar higher in this segment and raises our expectations for future lower-cost phones.

Buy Huawei Honor 5X on Amazon.com

Unfortunately, the Redmi Note 3 Pro, like most phones made by Chinese OEMs, is not sold in the US and does not support the LTE frequencies used by US carriers. Instead US consumers must choose from a number of underwhelming phones such as the LG X Power and its Snapdragon 212 SoC that uses four Cortex-A7 CPU cores—not even A53s—and 1.5GB of RAM. The Huawei Honor 5X cannot match the Redmi Note 3 Pro’s performance or photo quality, but it remains a solid option for the US despite being almost a year old. Even the recently released Moto G4 and G4 Play really do not bring anything new. The Honor 5X recently received a long awaited update to Android 6.0 and EMUI 4.0 and is still available for about $200.

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The overclocking downlow: How breaking your computer makes it faster

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Not all computers are created equal. You probably know the basics of what makes your computer tick: RAM, ROM, processors and graphics cards.

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Qualcomm launches Snapdragon embedded processors for IoT

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Qualcomm is introducing the Snapdragon 600E and 410E processors, for embedded IoT applications such as digital signage, set-top-boxes, medical ...

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Qualcomm signs Arrow to distribute processors targeted at embedded apps

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In a change of marketing tactics, Qualcomm is making the newly launched Snapdragon 600E and 410E processors available through distribution.

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Scan 3XS LG17 Carbon Extreme

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The mobile GPU has 2,560 stream processors and 8GB of 10,000MHz of GDDR5X memory – the same as the desktop card. The mobile version's ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E and 410E Designed for Embedded Computing, Internet of Things ...

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The introduction of the Snapdragon 600E and 410E processors, along with their global availability by distributors, is an important extension of the ...

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MacBook Pro 2016 Release Date, News & Update: Apple Laptop's Powerful Processor Revealed ...

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If Apple decides to release the much-awaited laptop this year, it may run on the current Sky Lake chipset since Intel will not launch the new CPU until ...

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NVIDIA Teases Xavier, a High-Performance ARM SoC for Drive PX & AI

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Ever since NVIDIA bowed out of the highly competitive (and high pressure) market for mobile ARM SoCs, there has been quite a bit of speculation over what would happen with NVIDIA’s SoC business. With the company enjoying a good degree of success with projects like the Drive system and Jetson, signs have pointed towards NVIDIA continuing their SoC efforts. But in what direction they would go remained a mystery, as the public roadmap ended with the current-generation Parker SoC. However we finally have an answer to that, and the answer is Xavier.

At NVIDIA’s GTC Europe 2016 conference this morning, the company has teased just a bit of information on the next generation Tegra SoC, which the company is calling Xavier (ed: in keeping with comic book codenames, this is Professor Xavier of the X-Men). Details on the chip are light – the chip won’t even sample until over a year from now – but NVIDIA has laid out just enough information to make it clear that the Tegra group has left mobile behind for good, and now the company is focused on high performance SoCs for cars and other devices further up the power/performance spectrum.

NVIDIA ARM SoCs
	Xavier	Parker	Erista (Tegra X1)
CPU	8x NVIDIA Custom ARM	2x NVIDIA Denver + 4x ARM Cortex-A57	4x ARM Cortex-A57 + 4x ARM Cortex-A53
GPU	Volta, 512 CUDA Cores	Pascal, 256 CUDA Cores	Maxwell, 256 CUDA Cores
Memory	?	LPDDR4, 128-bit Bus	LPDDR3, 64-bit Bus
Video Processing	7680x4320 Encode & Decode	3840x2160p60 Decode 3840x2160p60 Encode	3840x2160p60 Decode 3840x2160p30 Encode
Transistors	7B	?	?
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 16nm FinFET+	TSMC 16nm FinFET+	TSMC 20nm Planar

So what’s Xavier? In a nutshell, it’s the next generation of Tegra, done bigger and badder. NVIDIA is essentially aiming to capture much of the complete Drive PX2 system’s computational power (2x SoC + 2x dGPU) on a single SoC. This SoC will have 7 billion transistors – about as many as a GP104 GPU – and will be built on TSMC’s 16nm FinFET+ process.

Under the hood NVIDIA has revealed just a bit of information of what to expect. The CPU will be composed of 8 custom ARM cores. The name “Denver” wasn’t used in this presentation, so at this point it’s anyone’s guess whether this is Denver 3 or another new design altogether. Meanwhile on the GPU side, we’ll be looking at a Volta-generation design with 512 CUDA Cores. Unfortunately we don’t know anything substantial about Volta at this time; the architecture was bumped further down NVIDIA’s previous roadmaps for Pascal, and as Pascal just launched in the last few months, NVIDIA hasn’t said anything further about it.

Meanwhile NVIDIA’s performance expectations for Xavier are significant. As mentioned before, the company wants to condense much of Drive PX2 into a single chip.  With Xavier, NVIDIA wants to get to 20 Deep Learning Tera-Ops (DL TOPS), which is a metric for measuring 8-bit Integer operations. 20 DL TOPS happens to be what Drive PX2 can hit, and about 43% of what NVIDIA’s flagship Tesla P40 can offer in a 250W card. And perhaps more surprising still, NVIDIA wants to do this all at 20W, or 1 DL TOPS-per-watt, which is one-quarter of the power consumption of Drive PX 2, a lofty goal given that this is based on the same 16nm process as Pascal and all of the Drive PX2’s various processors.

NVIDIA’s envisioned application for Xavier, as you might expect, is focused on further ramping up their automotive business. They are pitching Xavier as an “AI Supercomputer” in relation to its planned high INT8 performance, which in turn is a key component of fast neural network inferencing. What NVIDIA is essentially proposing then is a beast of an inference processor, one that unlike their Tesla discrete GPUs can function on a stand-alone basis. Coupled with this will be some new computer vision hardware to feed Xavier, including a pair of 8K video processors and what NVIDIA is calling a “new computer vision accelerator.”

Wrapping things up, as we mentioned before, Xavier is a far future product for NVIDIA. While the company is teasing it today, the SoC won’t begin sampling until Q4 of 2017, and that in turn implies that volume shipments won’t even be until 2018. But with that said, with their new focus on the automotive market, NVIDIA has shifted from an industry of agile competitors and cut-throat competition, to one where their customers would like as much of a heads up as possible. So these kinds of early announcements are likely going to become par for the course for NVIDIA.

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