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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

4K Gaming PC March 2018
Apple HomePod Review - A Dumb Smart Speaker?
ASUS B360/H370/H310 LGA1151 motherboards leaked
Biostar Racing X370GT7 Motherboard Review
CORSAIR Hydro H115i Pro Low Noise 280mm RGB Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Ebony and Ivory, icons together in perfect harmony
Gamdias ASTRAPE P1 650G Power Supply Review
Surface Book 2 Review: Microsoft brings the thunder, but not the Thunderbolt



4K Gaming PC March 2018

4K monitors are getting cheaper and cheaper, while their sharpness can't be matched by normal displays. Graphics cards have to render four times as many pixels to drive a 4K display compared to a 'normal' Full HD panel, while the game textures are only getting more detailed. In short: you need real horse power to game in 4K.

A fast processor and especially a graphics card is a must. However, the rest of the configuration needs to be balanced as well. Since many gamers prefer to overclock their PC to improve performance, it is important to choose a motherboard that is suitable for this.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Apple HomePod Review - A Dumb Smart Speaker?

Apple has finally made an entrance into the growing home AI assistant market, with their recent release of the long-awaited HomePod. First announced back in June of 2017 and scheduled for release by December of 2017. After some delays, only recently has it begun shipping to Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Apple has positioned the HomePod as a smart speaker, running on Siri as the AI. This puts the HomePod in the ring up against strong and more prominent competitors such as the Google Home speakers and the Amazon Echo series.

Read full article @ VR Zone

ASUS B360/H370/H310 LGA1151 motherboards leaked

We've heard guys over at ASUS were not happy that we didn't leak their motherboards yet. ASUS STRIX H370-F GAMING This is probably the highest-end mobo launching soon for CoffeeLake CPUs. You can probably notice the striking similarity to STRIX X470-F, that we leaked yesterday. ASUS is basically refreshing the look of their STRIX series. Look at the packaging... did someone say CrossFire is dead?

Read full article @ VideoCardz.com

Biostar Racing X370GT7 Motherboard Review

There are many Ryzen motherboards already on the market, but there’s certainly room for more. The latest from Biostar comes packed with features and promises excellent performance. Most importantly, it’s priced competitively, not cheaply, but competitive, so it’ll be interesting to see how it stacks up.

Equipped with the X370 chipset, it’ll allow for overclocking of all Ryzen CPUs. Back that up with support for overclocked memory, fast charging tech, good networking capabilities, and storage options, and you’re set for a high-performance system. I’m also happy to see the good audio hardware. Also, an HDMI 2.0 port. Although I doubt many will be using a board like this with the APU hardware, it’s nice to have the choice.

Read full article @ eTeknix

CORSAIR Hydro H115i Pro Low Noise 280mm RGB Liquid CPU Cooler Review

The Hydro H150i Pro RGB may be a great AIO liquid CPU cooler but because of its length it's just not for everyone. With the "shorter" Hydro H115i Pro RGB CORSAIR solves that issue for many people not only without sacrificing performance but also with reduced noise.

Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

Unlike the triple 120mm fan H150i Pro RGB model the H115i Pro RGB is a dual 140mm fan model (again also manufactured by Asetek) which means that it should enjoy higher compatibility with PC towers than the former. Just like the H150i Pro RGB the H115i Pro RGB was also designed for almost inaudible operation and since it's paired with larger 140mm ML magnetic levitation PWM fans it could actually be even less audible. To be more specific the 140mm ML PWM fans used can spin up to 1200RPM to produce 55.4CFM of airflow and 1.27mm-H2O of air pressure with just 20.4dBA of noise.

Read full article @ Nikktech

Ebony and Ivory, icons together in perfect harmony

Michael Jackson once sang about icons. And now I'm writing. Here's a short and fun article introducing several monochrome and black & white icons themes for various Linux desktop environments, including ACYLS, Ghost Flat, Numix White, and more. Enjoy.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

Gamdias ASTRAPE P1 650G Power Supply Review

First Id like to give a huge shoutout to Gamdias for sending me this product to review! This is our first ever review of a Gamdias power supply. It has a maximum output of 650W.

With less heat converted by the remaining power, ASTRAPE P1-650W comes with 80 PLUS Gold certification and ensures up to 90% energy efficiency. Accordingly, it won’t waste power and trigger excess heat. The less the heat output generates, the less noise arises.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Surface Book 2 Review: Microsoft brings the thunder, but not the Thunderbolt

Back in October, Microsoft surprised everyone by announcing the Surface Book 2. In fact, it was the first Surface product to be announced via a press release, rather than at an event. But in addition, it's probably the most exciting Surface of the year.

After all, the Surface Laptop is, well, a laptop, and the new Surface Pro is an iteration on previous models. The Surface Book 2 came with a new 15-inch model in tow, along with a more powerful CPU and GPU. The old sixth-gen 'Skylake' chips were replaced with the quad-core, eighth-generation 'Kaby Lake R' processors. And along with the additional CPU power, the old mobile GPUs in the original Book were replaced by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, and a GTX 1060 for the 15-inch model.

Read full article @ Neowin