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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AmpliFi Mesh Wi-Fi System and AmpliFi Teleport Kit Review
Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W PSU Review
AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 2 - GC551 Review
Dell G5 15 (5587) Review
EVGA X299 Dark (Intel X299) Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi AMD Ryzen Mobo Review
GIGABYTE B360 Gaming 3 WIFI Review
HP Portable SSD P600 Review
Intel Core i7-8086K 40th Anniversary CPU Review
Kingston DCP1000 1.6TB PCIe NVMe SSD Review
NVMe SSD Roundup 2018: Intel Optane, WD Black and Samsung 970 Evo/Pro
QSAN XCubeNAS XN5004T NAS Review
TeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 250GB SSD Review
Windows 10 & SMBv1 - Does it work?
XPG Gammix S11 Review



AmpliFi Mesh Wi-Fi System and AmpliFi Teleport Kit Review

Amplifi sells two kits, as well as separate routers and mesh nodes to extend routers. AppleInsider went hands-on with both a mesh node kit, consisting of a router and two mesh nodes, and a separate Teleport kit, made up of one router and one Teleport unit.

The Router HD is a cube with a circular touch-sensitive display on the front that cycles through IP address, throughput up and downstream, and which ports are connected around the back. The router has four gigabit Ethernet ports, USB-C for power, and a single USB-A port that is reserved for future use, but isn't functional at this time.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Antec HCG Extreme Series 1000W PSU Review

Love the colour Gold? Then this high end Antec power supply might just get you excited. Today we take a look at one of the latest power supplies from Antec’s new ‘High Current Gamer Extreme Series’. There are two models in this specific range, and Antec sent us their flagship 1000W model to analyse (there is also an 850W in this range). This power supply is certified 80 PLUS GOLD and is a pure modular design with a 10 year warranty. Price is set around the £190 mark in the United Kingdom.

Read full article @ KitGuru

AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 2 - GC551 Review

Hot on the heels of our Streaming & Gaming PC Guide, for today's consideration we'll be looking at AVerMedia's new Live Gamer Extreme 2 or GC551. This device is capable of capturing footage at up to 1080p60 and offers 4K60 pass-through, all via USB 3.1 Type-C.

For any gamer wanting to capture in-game footage to share with the rest of the world, there are some hurdles to overcome. Specialised software is required to run in the background, and in some cases, this can have a detrimental effect on system resources - possibly ruining the entire experience for the source.

Read full article @ Vortez

Dell G5 15 (5587) Review

Gaming credentials at an affordable price. Dell has bolstered its range of gaming laptops with the introduction of a slew of models launched under the new G Series umbrella. Intended to replace the existing Inspiron Gaming line, G Series systems promise a "gaming-first package that won’t break the bank," and are designed to extend Dell's gaming appeal beyond premium Alienware machines and into the mainstream.

The new line-up will initially be divided into three tiers - G3, G5 and G7 - with prices starting from around £750, and all launch models flaunt an 8th Gen Intel Core processor and dedicated Nvidia GeForce graphics. To see how the G Series stacks up, we have the mid-range G5 15 in for review today.

Read full article @ Hexus

EVGA X299 Dark (Intel X299) Motherboard Review

EVGA launched their X299 Dark a little while ago and even based on first impressions, the motherboard is a beast. It's extremely over-engineered in regards to circuits and injects features and quality when they aren't really required. Both the right and left edges of the PCB are plated with gold as are some exposed pathways on the PCB, and it's very hard to bend the PCB because of it.

There are two fans on the VRM heat sink, the motherboard comes with a PCB used to create a test bench, and it has a pretty intricate monitoring and diagnostic system built into it. We have seen some crazy X299 motherboards, such as the X299 OC Formula and Rampage VI Extreme, let's see what happens when you mix them together, which is what I initially thought the X299 Dark was.

Read full article @ TweakTown

GIGABYTE Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi AMD Ryzen Mobo Review

GIGABYTE is one of the world’s largest and most well-known manufacturers of computer components and motherboards. GIGABYTE was founded in 1986 and has grown into one of the most influential, successful, and well-known motherboard manufacturers in the world. GIGABYTE isn’t unique in this regard, as several of its competitors were founded around the same time. We have seen many motherboard makers come and go over the years, but three of the most successful motherboard manufacturers are the ones founded around this time.

GIGABYTE is a bit of an odd duck. In my experience, GIGABYTE has often made some unusual choices regarding integrated features and motherboards, and even stranger choices regarding its aesthetic design for many of its products. GIGABYTE’s marketing regarding its name brands and model numbers share a similar dichotomy. Its name brands being somewhat hard to understand at times while its model numbers are generally clear and easy to figure out. For instance, I have no idea what the hell a "Designare" is but so far it seems to be on the high end of the spectrum. Products in the Designare family are sometimes quite similar to those in the Aorus family but may have more professionally oriented features and offer additional features at a higher cost. This can only be discerned by comparing similar products in both families. GIGABYTE’s X399 offerings are a good example of this with the Designare version offering slightly more than its Aorus counterpart. It’s hard to understand the pecking order of brands based on made-up words without definitions to go with them.

Read full article @ HardOCP

GIGABYTE B360 Gaming 3 WIFI Review

One of GIGABYTEs first B360 series motherboards in the Gaming 3 WIFI. This is our first review of this new chipset, and it offers users a cheaper way into the 8th generation Intel processors. The GIGABYTE B360 Gaming 3 WIFI includes many of the features found in the Z370 version, and even trumps it in one respect with its ultra-fast Intel CNVi Wi-Fi with speeds up to 1.73 Gbps.

Read full article @ Anandtech

HP Portable SSD P600 Review

If you are looking for a portable drive that will quickly transfer large files between different devices a portable SSD (Solid-State Drive) is what you need here in 2018. SSDs are a must have inside your PC since they are faster and more reliable than traditional spinning hard drives. SSD prices have come down so much in recent years that portable SSDs have been able to compete with lower cost USB Flash drives and external hard drives. HP is the latest company to offer a portable SSD series and in June 2018 they introduced the Portable SSD P600 series. The HP Portable SSD P600 series is available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities for $99.99, $159.99 and $299.99, respectively. All three capacities are backed by a 3-year warranty.

Thanks to the drives USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, the P600 series is capable of reaching transfer speeds up to 560 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write! Those are wicked fast speeds for a portable drive and is something that can only be reached on a newer system that has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface with USAP (USB Attached SCSI) mode enabled. HP did not disclose what controller they are using on this portable drive, but they did point out that they are using the latest 64-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory on the P600.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Intel Core i7-8086K 40th Anniversary CPU Review

Intel recently launched a Core i7-8086K Limited Edition processor, based on the company’s Coffee Lake architecture, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the venerable 8086. Although it wasn’t the first microprocessor employed in personal computers, the Intel 8086 laid the foundation for the x86 architecture, which has been at the core of virtually all “IBM compatible” or “Win-Tel” PCs released since.

Before we talk about where Intel is going with Core i7-8086K, however, we need to discuss where it has been. Intel put together this infographic highlighting the major advancements made in processor design and manufacturing over the last 40 years. As you can see, the transistor count is simply incomparable. The massive increase in transistor count was enabled by huge leaps made in the manufacturing (and design) processes. Whereas the 8086 was manufactured using a 3 Micron process – equivalent to 3,000nm – the Core i7-8086K is manufactured using a 14nm process. Larger wafers are also in use today and the die used in the 8086K is about 3x larger. Clocks have obviously ramped-up significantly as well. The 8086 chugged along at roughly 5MHz; the Core i7-8086K’s peak turbo frequency is 1000x higher at 5GHz.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Kingston DCP1000 1.6TB PCIe NVMe SSD Review

Kingston‘s DCP1000 (product link) isn’t a new SSD anymore, but it’s still a pleasure to review. Not only does it come with impressive performance ratings, it has the capacity to back it up. Today I’m having a closer look at the DCP1000 HHHL add-in card with a capacity of 1.6GB. Other capacity choices include a 3.2TB and 800GB model.

If you’re thinking of this drive for a personal use, then you better to rethink your plans. It is a “you may look, but don’t touch” drive. That is, of course, unless you have a serious amount of disposable income. The drive is aimed at data centres and enterprise setups where every bit of performance and real-estate optimisation counts.

Read full article @ eTeknix

NVMe SSD Roundup 2018: Intel Optane, WD Black and Samsung 970 Evo/Pro

The SSD market can seem overwhelming at first glance. Each product claims to be the fastest with advanced technologies that leave the competition in the dust. There's a lot of marketing fluff and artificial numbers thrown around, though ultimately it's a great time to upgrade your storage considering ever-lower prices and two distinct segments that go from fast and relatively affordable storage to extremely fast and more costly solutions. Today we'll be taking a look at the latter segment, comprised exclusively of NVMe solid storage.

Which products are the best for certain workloads, what technologies are out there, and what should you choose for your next build. We're taking a look at top players Samsung's 970 Pro and 970 Evo, Intel's Optane M.2 modules and Intel's Optane PCIe card and WD's Black SSD. A previous generation NVMe SSD from Intel has also been thrown in for comparison.

Read full article @ TechSpot

QSAN XCubeNAS XN5004T NAS Review

Taking advantage of multiple disks to provide not only performance enhancements, but redundancy for data protection, network-attached storage (NAS) devices are a great way to expand the amount of storage available to multiple devices on a network. Most units offer not only their file and resource sharing benefits, but they typically also provide other great features like automated backups to cloud services and fault tolerant disk configurations that can be of great benefit to business users. Many companies offer NAS devices spanning the gamut from single or dual-drive systems, all the way up to rack-mounted enterprise solutions capable of supporting dozens of local disks. One of those companies, QSAN, was founded on 2004, and works to provide enterprise-class storage systems to the world. QSAN’s XCubeNAS XN5000T series of NAS units are designed for the workloads of both workgroups and SMB environments. Given that direction, you won’t find a plethora of consumer-oriented applications like multimedia transcoding, media servers, or the like. Instead, the XN5004T we are reviewing today offers a solid base of tools and features for getting work done in an efficient and reliable manner. Follow along as we take a look at the QSAN XCubeNAS XN5004T NAS.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

TeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 250GB SSD Review

TeamGroup recently announced their Delta RGB series SSDs. In an effort trying to offer a value for money SSD, armed with RGB bling. As we learned and as you're about to find out, these SSDs offer surprisingly good performance. The T-Force Delta RGB SSD remains fast and very effective for the money you put down on that counter. We review the new 250GB model. The Delta RGB series will become available in 250 and 500 GB versions as well as a 1TB model all offering roughly the same performance at 560 MB/sec reads, 510 MB/sec writes (sequential) and 80 to 90K Random Write IOPS for all models.

The Delta RGB series uses Micron TLC written NAND paired with an SLC write buffer, the vertically stacked version is also paired with a DRAM cache and. Our tested 250GB SSD is advertised at proper SATA3 SSD performance metrics with 560MB/s for sequential read and 500MB/s on sequential writes.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

Windows 10 & SMBv1 - Does it work?

Connecting the world, one box at a time. Compelled by reader requests, I've baked this article showing and verifying Windows 10 SMB1 protocol connectivity behavior after a clean installation, including direct access to network nodes, network browsing, network discovery, file and printer sharing, network profile, firewall rules, Windows features, and more. Take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

XPG Gammix S11 Review

The Gammix S11 employs a PCI-E Gen. 3 x4 interface to allow speeds up to 3200MB/s read and 1700MB/s write while conforming to the 2280 M.2 form factor. Due to the use of 2nd generation 64-layer 3D NAND flash, higher capacities have been achieved, as well as better longevity and reliability.

If you remember back to August last year, we looked at the ADATA XPG Gammix S10, a very capable NVMe M.2 SSD that struck a great balance between cost and performance, however, more recently, XPG have shown their hand with the SX8200 which we reviewed in April; this SSD put the cat amongst the pigeons, offering 95% of the performance of a similar capacity Samsung EVO or PRO drive at 60% of the cost.

Read full article @ Vortez