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Users have reported faster-than-normal health degradation in Samsung 990 Pro SSDs for about a month. No one seems to have determined the cause, which affects all drive sizes. Samsung only recently opened an investigation into the matter. Multiple users on Reddit and overclock.net say that storage utility programs are reporting alarmingly low health numbers for their 990 Pros and shockingly high amounts of written data after only a few weeks of use....

The main new feature of the Snapdragon 410 is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cluster, which in the MSM8916 in the Galaxy A5 runs at 1.2 GHz. As I’ve mentioned in our look at the high-end Exynos 5433 in the Galaxy Note 4, the Cortex-A53 is the low-power successor to the Cortex-A7 based on ARM’s latest ARMv8 architecture. This means the Snapdragon 410 is 64-bit capable, although I believe only 32-bit instructions are supported on the Galaxy A5’s current software edition....

However there are a few differences in the AMOLED technology in the Galaxy Alpha that means you aren’t simply getting a flagship display from 2012. Samsung has improved AMOLED displays significantly over the past few years, delivering better color quality, higher levels of brightness and better outdoor readability. These improvements started to become available in the Galaxy S5, and also the Note 4, both of which pack very decent AMOLED panels....

The 960 Evo came in slightly slower than the 950 Pro series in our game installation test which we feel is an impressive result. At just 72 seconds, the 960 Evo series was a good bit faster than Intel’s SSD 600p series. Moving to our Acronis TrueImage 2015 test, the 960 Evo took just 149 seconds to complete the 45.22GB backup, placing it on par with drives such as the SM951 NVMe and not a great deal slower than the 950 Pro....

Starting with his usual Mohs’ hardness test, Nelson notes that the “abrasive” anti-glare coating on the more expensive Steam Deck model makes it harder to remove surface-level damage; he thinks Valve would have been better off using a brighter panel instead of the coating. It left marks from level 2 upwards, though the actual damage only occurs at level 6, which is about the same as most smartphones. The cheaper Steam Deck without the anti-glare coating didn’t have this issue....

There’s no clear-cut metric to use as a guideline if you’re shopping for a sound card. Lengthy audiophile reviews are available, but they generally don’t offer a quantifiable takeaway if you have a limited point of reference and don’t know much about the subject to begin with. I fall into that category. I’ve never had anything except onboard sound and my knowledge of acoustics couldn’t fill a thimble. From that position, buying a sound card has always felt more like a gamble than an investment....

Still, it wasn’t all bad. I started by squeezing the motherboard in and while I would normally install the memory and CPU heatsink prior to inserting the motherboard, I don’t recommend doing this with the FT05. There simply isn’t enough room to work with a large air-cooler already installed. With the Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E Extreme in place, we couldn’t access the CPU 8-pin power connector from any angle and it even made getting to the 24-pin ATX power connector difficult....

There are also two 3-pin fan power connectors hooked up to a basic fan speed controller that lets you set the 180mm intake fans to low or high. However, the fan controller is not powered, so each fan must still be plugged into the motherboard. The expansion card bay and motherboard I/O panel are offset into the Raven 3. Silverstone had to do this so that the various power and data cables have enough room to fit under the case lid where they will travel under a handle at the rear....

The key to the RVZ02 is its simplistic internal design which makes installation a breeze, something few Mini-ITX gaming cases can claim. While we would describe the internal design as simple, it’s also intelligently thought-out – a clear result of constant refinement. There are some truly ingenious design elements that we will get to shortly. The right side of the case features the Mini-ITX motherboard tray with a very large cut-out....

At this extreme resolution with AA disabled gamers are not going to want anything slower than a Radeon HD 4890 or GeForce GTX 260 in our opinion, both averaged just over 50fps. The Radeon HD 5850, GeForce GTX 470 and the older GeForce GTX 285 all averaged around 66-68fps which is an optimum level of performance.

The HD Tune Pro random performance test is possibly one of the most relevant benchmarks that we use. First up we have the read results, and when running the 512 byte test the traditional hard drive produced a throughput of just 0.04MB/s. The Intel X25-M achieved 5.5MB/s, while the Indilinx Barefoot SSDs were limited to 4.8MB/s, which included the A-Data S592 128GB and OCZ Agility. The Samsung SSDs were a bit slower, with the Corsair P Series 128GB reaching 3....

This very camera module in the Xperia Z1 established itself as being the best available in an Android smartphone, and nothing much has changed since. With the Bionz image processor at hand, the Z1 Compact is capable of some fantastic shots, both in clarity and in color accuracy. I was never disappointed with a photo taken in good lighting conditions, with the Z1 Compact capturing accurate, detailed images that I’ve come to love from Sony’s imaging solutions....

StarCraft II does not include the option to enable anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering in-game. Furthermore, it was not possible to force these settings when using any of the ATI graphics cards. The Nvidia-based cards were able to use AA/AF quality settings when forced at the driver level, but we opted not to use these filtering settings so we could make a fair comparison among all the cards. The latest official drivers were used for all graphics cards, though we were unable to get SLI or Crossfire working properly and therefore boost the game’s performance with more than one GPU at work....

The service supplies Internet access on an as-needed basis anywhere Starlink provides active coverage. Users can pause and reactive service at any time to accommodate travel schedules, but service is charged in full monthly increments and cannot be pro-rated. There is no waitlist either – all orders will ship shortly after being received. Cost is another concern. Starlink for RV retails for $599 plus $50 shipping and any applicable taxes, and it’s all due up front (versus a $99 deposit due today for residential service)....

When compared to the Atom D525 featured in the DS2411+, the Atom D2700 is clocked 18% faster but consumes over 20% less power. Rather than soldering the memory chips directly to the PCB, as was the case with earlier Synology NAS devices, the DS2413+ features a pair of SO-DIMM slots. One of these slots comes preloaded with 2GB of DDR3-1333 memory. The other slot – found on the back side of the motherboard – is easily accessible by removing the left side case door....

When we talked to the Nvidia guys they said the card we were seeing in action (GF100) was final hardware and the work remaining laid in driver optimization, BIOS and clock tweaking, so the GPU speed and thermals for the first production Fermi card have not yet been finalized. Nvidia hopes to have its first GeForce card based on this architecture out by the first quarter. It will be a single card launch targeting the high-end sector, with several other releases in the pipeline throughout the rest of the year....

Musk made the announcement at the launch party for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas. A production version of the Cybertruck was on stage during the event, showing a slight change to the original design: the truck will no longer come with door handles; instead, sensors will detect when an owner is nearby and open automatically. Tesla’s unveiling of the Cybertruck almost three years ago didn’t go entirely smoothly. An employee threw a metal ball at its “unbreakable” driver’s side glass windows, both of which shattered....

As the names imply, these profiles are pre-configured to suit drivers with differing levels of confidence in Tesla’s technology. If you have low faith in FSD’s capabilities, for example, you might stick with the “Chill” driving mode. According to Tesla, it allows for a “larger follow distance” and results in your vehicle performing “fewer speed lane changes.” The Assertive profile is the exact opposite: it has the smallest follow distance of the three modes, performs “more frequent” speed lane changes, does not exit passing lanes, and may perform what Tesla calls a “rolling stop....

After the Chinese prototype seen at the beginning of 2022, 500Hz monitors are now coming to market as products you can physically buy. And the Dell Alienware AW2524H should actually be the first mass-manufactured 500Hz monitor, beating Asus PG248QP and offering a better color experience overall. While Asus adopted a TN panel for its 540Hz monitor, Dell will use a “Fast IPS” panel made by AU Optronics, which means the Alienware AW2524H monitor should have better colors and viewing angles by far....

PDP sub-brand Victrix is known for its high-end controllers, such as the Pro FS Arcade Fight Sticks and the Gambit Dual Core Tournament Controller for PC and Xbox. This December, the company will launch the Victrix BFG Pro Controller, a $180 controller for the PC (X-Input), PS4, and PS5. Paying almost $200 for a controller is no small outlay, but then Victrix’s upcoming device is not only officially licensed by Sony Interactive Entertainment but also incredibly modular and customizable....