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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

7 Tech Predictions for 2019
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Performance Regressions Linked to a Windows Bug
AnandTech Year in Review 2018: SSDs
Best SSDs 2019: From Budget to Blazing Speed
Brainwavz B400 Earphones Review
NZXT H500i Case Review
Seasonic Focus SGX-650 Power Supply Review
Team Group MP32 PCIe SSD 512 GB Review



7 Tech Predictions for 2019

Though it's a year shy of the big decade marker, 2019 looks to be one of the most exciting and most important years for the tech industry in some time. Thanks to the upcoming launch of 5G and foldable displays, as well as critical enhancements in AI, robotics, and other exciting areas, there's a palpable sense of expectation for the new year that we haven't felt for a while.

Read full article @ TechSpot

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Performance Regressions Linked to a Windows Bug

Wendell at Level1Techs has done extensive testing of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX systems in an attempt to find out what is causing performance regressions under Windows. When AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX processors first arrived on the scene, the performance regressions observed were blamed on the choice to use NUMA and only using only 4 memory channels. But then more testing showed that when running apps that are native to Windows and Linux, performance regressions would show up during Windows testing, but the same system would be extremely fast under Linux. If memory bandwidth was the issue, then the performance regressions should have appeared in Linux also.

Even testing an AMD EPYC 7551 32 core/64 thread monster revealed the same performance regressions issue and it has 8 memory channels. After conferring with other hardware testers, Wendell finally believes that he has found the issue that is causing the performance regressions; the Windows kernel! Wendell and another brilliant tech enthusiast named Jeremy at Bitsum collaborated to create a utility called CorePrio to fix issues with the Windows kernel that caused it to possibly only use one NUMA node. They say it gave them double the performance in their testing with Indigio. The article is a deep dive into the technical aspects of the problem and the solution that is a highly recommended read!

Read full article @ HardOCP

AnandTech Year in Review 2018: SSDs

Rounding out our series of articles taking a look back at 2018, the past year has been one of the most exciting years in the SSD space since the drives started to go mainstream. Competition is up and prices are down. Existing technologies like 3D NAND and NVMe are now delivering their full potential, and new technologies like QLC NAND are off to a good start.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Best SSDs 2019: From Budget to Blazing Speed

Based on our extensive lab tests, we recommend the top SSDs for every need and budget.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Brainwavz B400 Earphones Review

The B400 sports four balanced armatures per earphone and costs £170. Is it worth the money? While there are seemingly endless options of cheap earphones in the sub-£30 sector, what can you get if you are looking to spend a bit more? The Brainwavz B400 might be something to consider, with four drivers per earphone and a price of just under £170. That puts the B400 in direct competition with 1MORE’s Quad Driver IEM – which, as the name suggests, also boast 4 drivers and now cost just under £130.

While the inclusion of four balanced armatures per earphone is definitely the headline-grabbing feature of the Brainwavz B400, there’s plenty of other aspects to the earphones as well – including the 3D printed driver housings, a pair of detachable MMCX cables that come in the box, and a total of 7 pairs of ear tips that are also included. Currently priced at £169.50, are these worth buying?



Read full article @ KitGuru

NZXT H500i Case Review

$99 seems to be the sweet spot for PC cases. At this price you are high enough that you are getting a quality case that is well thought out and has a lot of features, but at the same time you may lack a few things present in higher priced cases. Today we are taking a look at NZXT’s H500i, which is a very sleek mid tower that offers a tempered glass side panel, two RGB LED strips, support for ATX motherboards, and a built in RGB and fan controller. Is this the perfect case at that $99 price point? Read on as we find out…

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Seasonic Focus SGX-650 Power Supply Review

The Seasonic Focus SGX-650 is a small form factor (SFX-L) power supply, but it's still possible to install it in ATX systems.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Team Group MP32 PCIe SSD 512 GB Review

Team Group's MP32 SSD comes in the compact M.2 2280 form factor and uses NVMe over a PCI-Express x2 interface. Another important change is that for cost-optimizations, a DRAM cache chip is not used, which definitely helps with pricing.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp