Reviews 51951 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Adata's XPG SX8200 480 GB SSD reviewed
Bloody B975 Light Strike Optical Keyboard Review
Coolerguys 2U Bracket with 4 High Speed Evercool 80mm fans Review
Corsair RMx Series 850W Power Supply Review
Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680 Review
FAR: Lone Sails PC Review
Intel Optane Memory M10 (64GB) Review: Optane Caching Refreshed
MSI B360 Gaming Plus Motherboard Review
Plextor M8V (M8VG) 512GB M.2 SATA SSD Review
Roccat Horde AIMO RGB Keyboard Review
Ryzen 5 2600 vs. Core i5-8400: 36 Game Benchmark
Silicon Power Armor A75 2TB USB 3.1 HDD Review
Steelseries Apex M750 TKL Keyboard Review
Supermicro C9X299-PG300 (Intel X299) Motherboard Review
Swiftech Maelstrom D5 X100 Reservoir Review
Synology DiskStation DS418play NAS Review
The first Volta: Nvidia Titan V Review



Adata's XPG SX8200 480 GB SSD reviewed

We've waxed poetic a number of times about the democratization of the PCIe storage market. The number of NVMe products from SSD makers everywhere has grown substantially over the years. Adata is one of the companies on the front lines of the NVMe wars, and it's been slinging a variety of powerful gumsticks into the market. Over the last couple of years, the manufacturer has put together an extensive lineup of NVMe drives. The SX8000 was the first, but Adata sliced and diced various combinations of controllers with planar and 3D NAND to produce the SX6000, SX7000, SX9000, Gammix S10, and Gammix S11.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Bloody B975 Light Strike Optical Keyboard Review

So our first mechanical keyboard review goes all the way back to 2008 and from them it really hasn’t stopped, not to mention all of the keyboards I personally have picked up over the years. What I’m getting at is that I’ve had the chance to check out a lot of keyboards but up until now they have always had some variation on a Cherry MX switch or other popular switch types like Topres’ so you would forgive me for being a little excited about optical keyswitches hitting the market. Well, it just so happens that I’ve had a few come in recently and for more than a month I’ve been switching between them. Today I’m going to dive into the first, the Bloody B975 Light Strike Optical Keyboard. The brand name might be a surprise but some of the guys behind a few of my favorite keyboards have been working with Bloody so I’m interested in seeing where things go with them. For now, though, let's see what the B975 is all about.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Coolerguys 2U Bracket with 4 High Speed Evercool 80mm fans Review

After adding some thermally controlled exhaust fans, I thought it would be good to address the intake side of things. The Middle Atlantic DWR-12-32 has 150mm fan mounts top and bottom, but with 2U of space on the front my preference was to try an active front facing intake. After some research, and a dearth of options, I found the $100 programmable Coolerguys 2U bracket with four 80mm Evercool fans. Overall, this cooling solution does what it intends to do, most of the time, but there are a few characteristics which make it less than perfect.

Read full article @ MissingRemote

Corsair RMx Series 850W Power Supply Review

The Corsair RMx Series currently includes five models: 1000W, 850W, 750W, 650W and 550W. And the 850W model is available in either standard black or special white. The RMx series is very similar to Corsair’s RMi series but with the advantage of lower cost due eliminating the digital Corsair Link interface and staying with 80 Plus Gold level efficiency. Like previous versions, all of the RMx Series power supplies are designed by Corsair and built by Channel Well Technologies (CWT). We will be taking a detailed look at the RM850x PSU (standard black) in this review.

The RMx Series power supplies are equipped with fully modular cables and optimized for very quiet operation. RMx Series power supplies incorporate Zero RPM Fan Mode, which means the fan does not start spinning until the power supply reaches a moderate load. The cooling fan is designed to deliver low noise and high static pressure.
The Corsair RMx Series is built with high-quality components, including all Japanese made electrolytic capacitors, and Corsair guarantees these PSUs to deliver clean, stable, continuous power, at ambient temperatures up to 50°C. And last but not least, the RMx series comes backed by a 10-year warranty.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680 Review

There are a litany of reasons why you might consider buying a gaming PC rather than rolling your own rig, including cost. Yes, many graphics cards have recently settled down closer to MSRP, but who knows if they will go back up again? On top of that, system memory is still trending on the high side (compared to a year or two ago). For the most part, pre-built systems have been somewhat sheltered from these volatile markets relative to the channel. That means the opportunity still exists to get into PC gaming at a reasonable price with a pre-built PC; Dell's Inspiron Gaming Desktop (5680) is a prime example. In fact, the Inspiron Gaming line has consistently represented one of the best values in PC gaming...

Read full article @ HotHardware

FAR: Lone Sails PC Review

FAR: Lone Sails is one of the finest indie adventure games in history.

Usually, post-apocalyptic games are about survival. Getting food, finding water, getting weapons, and dealing with threats is what most players have come to expect from the genre over the years. FAR: Lone Sails, however, subverts that expectation. None of these things play a role in this game — instead, you simply have one goal: get in your vehicle, and keep moving forward.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Intel Optane Memory M10 (64GB) Review: Optane Caching Refreshed

Intels Optane Memory M.2 caching drives are being updated. The new drives gain a new model number (M10), the same power management improvements introduced by the Optane SSD 800P, and a capacity increase to 64GB. Intels Optane Memory caching software has also been enhanced since its introduction with the new option of accelerating a hard drive that isnt the boot drive.

The complete Optane Memory caching solution consists of an M.2 SSD plus Intel's drivers for caching on Windows, and firmware support on recent motherboards for booting from a cached volume. Intel launched Optane Memory with its Kaby Lake generation of processors and chipsets, and this generation is intended to complement Coffee Lake systems. However, all of the new functionality works just as well on existing Kaby Lake systems as with Coffee Lake.

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI B360 Gaming Plus Motherboard Review

The MSI B360 Gaming Plus is poised to be an affordable motherboard packed with features. The color-scheme of the motherboard is black with an aggressive zig-zag line pattern in red. Utilizing the B360 chipset allows MSI to avoid the complications and additional costs of the Z370 chipset while packing in a lot of goodies most people want and expect on socket LGA 1151! The B360 chipset does not support overclocking, and the memory speeds are capped at a maximum of DDR4-2666. The lack of overclocking features means that the system is simpler – it will be easier to get a gaming rig up and running stable and fast!

The MSI B360 Gaming Plus has many of the features most would expect from modern motherboards: four memory slots, two PCI-Express x16 Gen 3.0 and four x1 slots, an M.2 slot and five SATA III ports, and four USB 3.1 ports on the rear panel. Processor support goes all the way up to the stout Intel i7-8700K! Sadly even K-series overclocking isn't supported here, though as mentioned earlier this chipset is not intended for that purpose anyway.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Plextor M8V (M8VG) 512GB M.2 SATA SSD Review

Plextor continues to set standards for budget drives, simply by delivering more than the average drive. Their drives don’t just deliver a strong performance, they also come with a great software bundle which can take the whole thing to a new level. Part of this is that you get the full NAND capacity. In today’s case, you get 512GB instead of the often seen 480GB. We will get to why that is further down the page.

Plextor’s new M8V series comes in two other capacity options besides today’s 512GB version. There’s also a 128GB and a 256GB capacity available. The 2280 (22mm by 80mm) NGFF M.2 module isn’t just compatible with most modern motherboards, it will also fit into a lot of notebooks, netbooks, and ultrabooks. By eliminating the need for a casing such as in the 2.5-inch version of the drive, you cut down even further on the weight. And in portable systems, every gram counts. And yes, there’s also a 2.5-inch 7mm version of the M8V series. We reviewed that recently.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Roccat Horde AIMO RGB Keyboard Review

I recently brought you two new peripherals from ROCCAT featuring their new collective lighting system, namely the Kone AIMO mouse and Khan AIMO headset. Rounding up the set is today’s review for ROCCAT’s Horde AIMO which is a gaming keyboard with a new membrane-based switch with mechanical-like properties that ROCCAT have labeled ‘Membranical’ and should give the best typing experience available on a membrane base. The Horde AIMO also comes with RGB lighting, five macro keys and an array of controls on the media bar as well as a wheel to select not only the keyboard features but also to control windows settings and features.

Before we delve into the keyboard itself, let’s take a look at the specifications as listed on the product website.

Read full article @ Play3r

Ryzen 5 2600 vs. Core i5-8400: 36 Game Benchmark

For the past few weeks we've been busy benchmarking two CPUs in over 30 games: AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel's Core i5-8400. Before we get into the benchmark results -- and I promise there’s a boatload of them -- here are a few quick notes on the test setup.

The Core i5-8400 rig features the MSI B360 Gaming Plus, a high quality B360 board that has no trouble getting the most out of the hexa-core CPU. Of course, we are limited to DDR4-2666 on this board, but we’ve gone with G.Skill’s high quality and very low latency FlareX CL14 memory. Cooling the i5-8400 is Intel's stock unit.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Silicon Power Armor A75 2TB USB 3.1 HDD Review

The new Armor A75 USB 3.1 external HDD does come with a professional looking chassis, which is also very light thanks to the aluminum build, impact resistant up to 1.22m and can operate between 5 and 55 degrees Celsius. It does also come with an USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C interface and the 2TB capacity should fit most user needs for backup purposes.

Silicon Power has recently released a full-aluminum USB 3.1 portable HDD in order to fit your backup needs while on-the-go; not only it does pack a very stylish enclosure, but also is shock resistant thanks to the rugged ridges and internal structure. The product is shipped inside a small cardboard enclosure with a small window, so we can have an idea on how the product does really look like, without the need of unsealing the box

Read full article @ Mad Shrimps

Steelseries Apex M750 TKL Keyboard Review

Greetings everyone, today we’re going to be covering the Steelseries Apex M750 TKL Keyboard. One of the things to note is the new QS2 switches, the switched are a little different than the predecessor QS1. This means there will be different actuation point and travel distance. You are only talking minimal differences but as far as specs the QS2 share some of the same as the Cherry switches. I’m excited to see how these switches reacts during those intense gaming sessions.

The Steel Series Apex M750 TKL is a compact, 10-keyless gaming keyboard engineered without compromise with QX2 mechanical switches and real-time Discord and in-game notifications. Series 5000 aerospace aluminum alloy provides unmatched durability, while intuitive per-key RGB lighting customization and Steel Series Engine software light up your gaming. Plus, the Game Sense Engine App delivers reactive illumination based on in-game events like low ammo, health, kills, money and cool down timers.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Supermicro C9X299-PG300 (Intel X299) Motherboard Review

Supermicro has tossed its hat into the X299 ring with the introduction of their C9X299-PG300, a motherboard designed to utilize a VRM that could easily handle a 300W TDP.

Now, whether or not you take that to mean Intel is going to release a 300W CPU, or if they are saying it is designed to handle an overclocked Skylake-X CPU, the VRM could handle 300W if you theoretically needed it to. Now, the motherboard also carries some more unique features such as a 10Gbit NIC, and it has a few interesting features. Let's take a look at this Supermicro X299 motherboard.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Swiftech Maelstrom D5 X100 Reservoir Review

Swiftech has updated their Maelstrom reservoir series in nearly every single manner. With the use of thick glass in a rectangular form factor for the reservoir and integrated RGB lighting, it offers color options via LEDs or a coolant of your choice. Adding to this is their new MCP655-PWM pump that offers increased compatibility with PWM controllers, while retaining the reliability, performance, and quiet nature we have come to know and love from the Laing D5.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Synology DiskStation DS418play NAS Review

Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices have definitely evolved over the past few years. Yes they are there to give you a reliable data backup for your files, with easy access to these files over the network, or even over the internet. But many consumers are looking for a device to store, and more importantly be able to stream media to all of the different devices in their home. Synology’s DiskStation DS418play allows you to not only stream HD video content to these devices, but 4K content as well. It does all of the heavy lifting, transcoding this content so even the smallest, under-powered devices can be streamed to. Being a Synology NAS the DiskStation DS418play is also loaded with Synology’s DSM which gives you access to all types of tools for home and small business use. Let’s get some drives in the DS418play and see what it can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

The first Volta: Nvidia Titan V Review

Since the first Titan in 2013,the Titan series has been the first to feature the performance of a new generation of video cards. In a way, the Titan V is the first Volta card to fit in that row, but this time there are a number of different things.

First of all, of course, there is the price. Whereas the Titans in recent years usually had a recommended price of about 1000 to 1300 pounds, the Titan V has a price tag of no less than 2700 pounds. In recent years, however, the Titans also became more and more a gaming card, because they started to look less and less like business Quadros and Teslas and more like normal GeForce models. The Titan Xp was even based on the GP102 chip, from which all the business features of the GP100 were stripped.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info