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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

20 of the Worst PC Setups – April 2018
All-round Deluxe PC - May 2018
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz Review
ASRock X299 Killer SLI/ac Motherboard Review
Cooler Master H500P Mesh Edition PC Case Review
Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case Review
Corsair K63 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and Lapboard Combo Review
Corsair Neutron NX500 400GB NVMe Review
FSP CMT230 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Intel Core i5-8500 3.0 GHz Review
Intel Suspends H310 Chipset Production
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire PC Review
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Review
Riotoro CR1088 Prism Chassis Review
ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 3 (2018) Review
Top 5 AMD X470 Motherboards



20 of the Worst PC Setups – April 2018

I’m sure at some point you’ve had a bad PC setup. Maybe moving into a new place, waiting for a new desk to arrive or you just ran out of room. I can remember my horrible PC setups from when I was living at the dorms in college. If you have ever ventured over to the Shitty Battlestations sub-reddit you will find a lot of horrible PC setups. We will are going to pick 20 each month and feature them as 20 of the Worst PC setups for that month. Here are some of the bad ones from April.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

All-round Deluxe PC - May 2018

The all-round Deluxe PC will last you a few years without requiring any upgrades. It is a bit more expensive, but is very complete as well. Using the internet, gaming, business applications, photo and video editing - all of these are possible on a good all-round PC, and you should never feel that you are lacking in performance for any of those activities.

This means a good processor and graphics card from the upper mid-range segment. Fast, yet affordable. You also need enough RAM and storage space, not to mention an attractive chassis and reliable power supply that can last several years. Of course you need a quality monitor, mouse and keyboard, as these are used very frequently.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz Review

AMD made a spectacular comeback in the processor market with its Ryzen processor family, to which Intel responded with its 8th generation Core processor family that has 50-100% core-count increases across the lineup. These held Intel's fort until AMD responded with its 2nd generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" family. We've covered every other chip in this rather slick family of just four SKUs, and now we have a chance to look at the most affordable one, the Ryzen 5 2600.

When you think about the first-generation Ryzen family, more glamorous SKUs such as the 1800X or the 1600X come to mind, retailers however think of the Ryzen 5 1600 as their cash cow. This was because it was an unlocked 6-core/12-thread chip that included a cooler, and sold for around $200. The value proposition was overwhelming for Intel's paltry 7th generation Core i5 lineup, and it was only with Intel's introduction of the interestingly priced Core i5-8400 that Intel managed to put the brakes on AMD's success south of $200. Unlike Intel, which bloated its Core i5 6-core family with a staggering five SKUs, AMD's lineup is rather slim, with just two SKUs, the Ryzen 5 2600X and the Ryzen 5 2600. The 2600X impressed us in our launch review, and is still the one of the best sub-$300 processors in our books.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ASRock X299 Killer SLI/ac Motherboard Review

Here we go with next ASRock motherboard and we hope it will be as exceptional as the last one. This time it’s the X299 Killer SLI/ac so high-end motherboard designed for gaming which supports Intel processors from the Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X series. We will show you how it performs with the i9-7900X processor, which is quite demanding considering high wattage but also generated heat.

Let’s start with some technical data and main features.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Cooler Master H500P Mesh Edition PC Case Review

The H500P is…meshified. And hence we have this PC case. The H500P mesh edition PC chassis comes in two colour variants- the gunmetal grey and the white edition which I am testing. I did not test the original H500P but we’re all aware of what lead to this case. Originally, the H500P was assured to provide high airflow within its case. The main issue, however, was the lack of direct airflow because of the plexiglass front panel. Either CM should have provided the mesh by default or simply not pitch it as high airflow as the main component of the case was an aftermarket purchase. Cooler Master knew its target audience well but having a separate purchasable item did not leave a good taste. The DLC approach with a mesh front panel wasn’t a good idea. Regardless, the original H500P is still regarded as a good case, with issues that could have been corrected easily.

Read full article @ Hardware BBQ

Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case Review

At CES 2018, Corsair announced three new cases, in March they released the final new case the Carbide 275R. There are two versions of the 275R, the first uses an acrylic side panel, while the second uses Tempered Glass. The acrylic side panel model is available at Amazon for $69.99 shipped, while the Tempered Glass panel is available for $79.99 shipped. Other than the difference in side panel the only other decision you need to make is if you want white or black! Read on to see how our build went!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Corsair K63 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and Lapboard Combo Review

PC gaming lives at the cutting edge, but let’s face it, sometimes it’s nice to kick back on the couch to enjoy a game. Not long ago, we were stuck with controllers or draping long wires across our floors, but as technology has advanced, those compromises are becoming a thing of the past. Today, we’re looking at the latest combo from Corsair with the K63 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and their custom-fit Lapboard.

Are the days of balancing keyboards on our legs and mousing from couch cushions finally behind us? Let’s find out.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Corsair Neutron NX500 400GB NVMe Review

With the Neutron NX500, Corsair unveils the second NVMe PCIe solid state drive. The SSD comes with HHHL (half-height half-length) form factor and sports a black heat sink with carbon-look accents. We have received the model with 400GB capacity, however Corsair makes other two models with 800GB and 1.6TB capacities. On the following pages we will check in details the performance of this drive.

Read full article @ ocaholic

FSP CMT230 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Going by what FSP has to say about this chassis, we can see that they are trying to hit on all of the features which draw in customers. They speak of a sleek and elegant design. Support for most motherboards, and optimal airflow patch, which is intended to keep the parts inside cool. Things like this we see on every product page for a chassis with a wide open interior which is what all companies are doing now. However, with what we see all the time, we have a higher standard of what is expected and plan to dissect this chassis to see if it is worthy of your hard-earned dollars.

The whole idea of the CMT chassis line is to give FSP a foothold in the market, offering many of the things that customers want to find in a chassis today. They offer multiple fans, some of their cases have LED fans, and each chassis in the series is unique in some way, while internally are similar. We have seen an earlier release from this series already, but FSP has released a trio of cases that they wanted to ensure we got our hands-on too. That being said, we are about to venture into the most compact of the series, and see what FSP has in store for us.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Intel Core i5-8500 3.0 GHz Review

Intel's $200 Core i5-8500 is part of the second wave of Coffee Lake CPUs, released earlier this year. The processor comes with six cores and six threads, and will boost up to 4.1 GHz. Our testing shows that even at higher thread counts it won't ever go below 3.9 GHz, which will make life difficult for the Ryzen 5 2600 - its main competitor.

Intel recently expanded its 8th generation Core processor family with more Core i5 six-core processor models, capturing important price points between $189 to $229. This price-band has become rather crowded now, with the i5-8400 starting at $189, the i5-8500 around $209, and the i5-8600 at $229. With the advent of AMD's 2nd generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" processor family, the competition between Intel and AMD heated up even more, with some retailers serving up the i5-8500 as low as $204, to compete with the new Ryzen 5 2600.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Intel Suspends H310 Chipset Production

Intel has announced new affordable motherboards for their Coffee Lake CPUs last month. This is after months of only having the top end Z370 chipset option for the mainstream desktop segment available. However according to DigiTimes, their sources within the motherboard industry is saying that the chip supplier’s 14nm process capacity is too tight. In turn, they have run out of supply for these affordable chipsets just after a month.

The H310 is the lowest-end and most affordable chipset in Intel’s 300-series line. However, manufacturers are now forced to adapt a more expensive B360 chipset option instead. Together with the entry-level H310, is the mainstream H370 and B360, as well as the enterprise Q360 and Q370 chipsets. With the exception of the flagship Z370 chipset which launched in Fall 2017, these 300-series chipsets were meant to boost motherboard sales from the usual Q1 slump.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire PC Review

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire sets sail to expansive islands with everything that made the first game great.

Following the success of the first game in the Pillars of Eternity series, Obsidian aimed to raise enough funds to cover the development of a sequel. More than 33,000 backers on Fig put together almost $4.5 million, showcasing just how much demand there is for excellent role-playing games (RPGs).

Read full article @ Windows Central

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Review

Obsidian Entertainment have firmly established themselves as stalwart keepers of the old-school computer RPG flame. Recent projects like Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny capably recreated the feel of classics like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, but you could argue they relied a little heavily on nostalgia. You can only get by on fuzzy memories for so long.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, the studio’s first sequel since going the fully-independent crowdfunded route, is their biggest challenge yet. Obsidian has proven the traditional CRPG can still attract an audience in the 2010s, but can they push the form to the next level? Does Pillars of Eternity II keep the fledgling franchise afloat, or sink under the weight of expectations?

Read full article @ Wccftech

Riotoro CR1088 Prism Chassis Review

We kick things off today with our first look at one of the newest names in the chassis market. Riotoro is pretty new on the block, and the CR1088 is the first of their lineup to grace my desk. I must admit, CR1088 isn’t the most catchy name for a product ever, but hey, we’ve heard worse over the years.

Equipped with support for (up to) an ATX motherboard, the CR1088 is surprisingly compact. If anything, you would be surprised to see ATX support, as it looks way to small. However, it uses a wider body, and a dual chamber design, allowing for more hardware that you might think. Throw in a large side panel window, 256 colour LED lighting, and a wallet-friendly price tag and the CR1088 is sounding very appealing. Of course, we want to look a little bit closer, so let’s get it out of the box and take a look!

Read full article @ eTeknix

ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 3 (2018) Review

We have covered Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Yoga series since its inception, and while the company might only be on its 3rd generation machine, what's under its hood is what might be thought of as four generations of advancement since then. Of course we are speaking of the 8th Gen Intel Core-i5 8250U quad-core mobile processor on board the new Thinkpad X1 Yoga.

The processor isn't the only thing that's changed though, as Lenovo is also flexing their security muscle with some new features as well as new stylus pen functionality and display options as well...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Top 5 AMD X470 Motherboards

There's already loads of great AMD X470 motherboards to choose from starting as low as $130. Asus, Asrock, MSI and Gigabyte have all done a great job with their boards and to be completely honest, for the most part you can’t go wrong. We have highlighted multiple options from the usual suspects broken down in a few categories we saw fitting to your buying interests, so here are our favorite X470 motherboards.

Read full article @ TechSpot