Reviews 51944 Published by

Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

ASUS ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming Review
Audio-Technica ATH-PG1 Premium Gaming Headset Review
Be Quiet! Silent Base 601 Mid-Tower Enclosure Review
Corsair K55 + Harpoon Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Review
Dragon Quest XI Benchmark Performance Analysis
Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock Review
MSI B450 Tomahawk Motherboard Review
Sennheiser CX Sport Bluetooth Earphones Review
SilverStone Argon Series AR11 Review
Slimbook Pro2 Review
SteelSeries Apex M750 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review



ASUS ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming Review

Sometimes bigger is better, and sometimes, smaller is cuter. Let's review the ASUS ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming based on the new B450 chipset it is aimed at for Ryzen processors, and in specific the new Ryzen 2000 / Zen+. This dawg is 17x17cm which is the mini-ITX form factor.

Yeah, Zen+ was launched in April, aka Ryzen 2000 or 12nm optimized Ryzen processors, the 'refresh' SKUs so to say. The new 12nm Zen+ processors will work fine with your X370 chipset based motherboard and vice versa, however, AMD launched the X470 chipset alongside these new Zen+ processors. The new chipset offers small improvements in combo with the new 12nm products. For example, to better facilitate XFR2 options. It has been a year already ever since AMD launched the first generation Ryzen processors. It had a bit of a rocky launch with the inter-core latency discussion a 1080p gaming performance as well as memory support. But the tide definitely turned for AMD as more and more people are considering to purchase an AMD processor-based PC, for their next purchase. The memory compatibility issues are mostly all gone, of course, we'll look at game performance in this article as well. But yes, things are looking good. The new 12nm processor generation can be clocked a notch higher. The upper range frequencies at 4.2~4.3 now are feasible, that also means that on the lower end of the spectrum, AMD is now capable to increase base-clock performance ion the more high-end parts. All these little tweaks bring the benefit of an overall faster processor series. Add to that improved memory latency and improved XFR2 ranges and you'll notice that the new ZEN+ generation now has become a really viable and more competitive product. So the ones that have not made a move towards AMD Ryzen just yet, now potentially could or will.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

Audio-Technica ATH-PG1 Premium Gaming Headset Review

Audio-Technica is one of the most well-known names in the headphone and mic business. They?ve developed a reputation in the professional recording world for delivering high class products that not only sound great but stand up to real-world use. But what happens when a company like this makes gaming headset? Today, we?re taking on the ATH-PG1 Premium Gaming Headset. Priced at $129, should it be your next headset?

Read full article @ MMORPG

Be Quiet! Silent Base 601 Mid-Tower Enclosure Review

It has been almost three years since we reviewed the original Silent Base 600 enclosure, and today we have the brand new Silent Base 601 from be quiet! in for review. Launching this week, the latest case from German manufacturer combines a noise-reducing interior with a no-frills exterior. Gone are its predecessors optical drive bays and hinged front panel door, allowing for a wide-open internal layout, and overall this is a thoroughly modern enclosure design.

The Silent Base 601 enclosure also marks this reviewers first experience with a be quiet! product (Lee handled the Silent Base 600 review), so I came into the this with zero expectations - and was honestly pretty surprised by the case overall. My findings (and many photos) are documented in this review, so lets get started!

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Corsair K55 + Harpoon Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Review

Corsair is no stranger to high-end gaming hardware. Their peripherals are often regarded as some of the finest on the market. However, they’re often also some of the more expensive too. Of course, there’s no harm in paying more if the product is worth it, and it’s worked well for Corsair so far. However, their more affordable products often get left in the shadows of their bigger brothers. With that in mind, today I’ll be taking a look at their latest bundle, which included a K55 keyboard and Harpoon gaming mouse. You save a few quid buying them together, but they can be purchased separately.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Dragon Quest XI Benchmark Performance Analysis

Dragon Quest XI finally brings the epic JRPG series to the PC platform, using trusted and tested game mechanics. Graphics follow a cuteish game style and are powered by Unreal Engine 4. Our performance review looks at this in detail, using 15 graphics cards. We also investigate CPU-core scaling and VRAM usage.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock Review

Elgato, the now Corsair-owned company famous for its gaming products, has produced its second Thunderbolt 3-enabled dock, aptly named the Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock.
Just as its name states, the Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock, available in stores on September 13 for $150, is designed to be small and portable. It even features a built-in Thunderbolt 3 cable that hides away when not in use.
Although it features such I/O options as USB-A and Ethernet, the main purpose of the Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock is for connecting up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz. Watch our hands-on video for the details.

Read full article @ 9to5Mac

MSI B450 Tomahawk Motherboard Review

MSI makes a convincing case for choosing B450 over X470. AMD X470 is the top motherboard chipset for AMD’s AM4 socket but it comes with a noticeable price premium over the second-tier B450 chipset motherboards which, for most applications and users, can be difficult to justify. And unlike Intel, which intentionally removes overclocking from all chipsets below Z370, AMD fully support and endorse overclocking for the B450 platform.

That means motherboards like this MSI B450 Tomahawk can offer an attractive suite of connectivity and features, including overclocking capability, for a surprisingly modest price point. Intel’s second tier chipsets for LGA1151v2, like H370 and B360, just can’t compete.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Sennheiser CX Sport Bluetooth Earphones Review

The Sennheiser CX Sport has the right attributes physically to perform, but its audio quality needs to be buffed out. While I like different genres of games such as first person shooters, role-playing, platformers, racing, and more, I have recently been enjoying more multiplayer games. Whether it is the hot kitchen of Overcooked, the space traveling of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, or casual party games from Jackbox Games, they all are fun in their own regards. I purchased several collections of Jackbox packs and we were playing a game called Drawful 2. In essence, the idea of the game is to draw the cue you are given and get other people to guess what your cue is. Before doing so, the other players will make up their own titles to distract others from answering the right one. The winner is generally the one with the best drawing skills as well as someone who can trick others. When I last played, one of my friends got a line of "déjà vu". His drawing, while understandable when we saw the final answer, was not the easiest to interpret. He drew a person doing something at a certain time, followed by the same person doing the same action an hour later. While he may have "cheated" by writing numbers, his topic of déjà vu is one we get to see here today. When I was contacted by Sennheiser to look at their CX Sport, a flashback of seeing the CX 6.00BT in our hands played through my mind. However, Sennheiser has said there have been some changes to make this pair of headphones more geared for the athletic crowd. Have we been in this place before or is a different circumstance altogether? Let us read on to find out!

Read full article @ APH Networks

SilverStone Argon Series AR11 Review

At only $40 the AR11 is a rock-solid cooler that will fit in all but the smallest of cases. SilverStone’s latest addition to its Argon Series of CPU coolers takes on one of the more challenging parts of building a HTPC or ultra-compact gaming rig: Size. Shrinking a build typically makes it difficult to find a CPU cooler that provides proper cooling without either making a ton of noise or interfering with other components on the motherboard such as the RAM and PCI-express slots. Thankfully, the AR11 is budget-friendly in addition to being both cool and compact.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Slimbook Pro2 Review

Fun is in the air. I haven't had this much fun since Kaoma released Lambada in 1989. To wit, I happily present a thorough and highly enthusiastic review of Slimbook Pro2 laptop, with four-core, eight-thread i5 processor, Intel UHD 620 graphics, 16GB RAM, and 500GB SSD, covering specifications, build quality, look & feel, screen and keyboard ergonomics, operating system setup, perks and extras, and more. Linux? Did someone mention Linux? It's there, too. Do take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

SteelSeries Apex M750 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Mechanical keyboards may be a relative new market trend but they definitely are not a new technology. Actually, most of the first PC keyboards back in the 70’s and 80’s were mechanical. Their use dwindled after the introduction of electronic keyboards because of their much lower cost. Electronic keyboards served their purpose for decades and had their part in lowering the overall price of a PC to make it affordable by the masses, yet early-day enthusiasts and professionals never forgot how much better the feeling of a mechanical keyboard was.

This style of keyboard was reintroduced into the consumer market almost a decade ago, after several patents expired and the overall production cost of mechanical switches was lowered, allowing the design and creation of affordable products once more. As the cost of a mechanical keyboard still was many times that of a common electronic keyboard, their market growth was slow, yet steady. The market kept growing and ever more manufacturers introduced new products. Nowadays there are dozens upon dozens of mechanical keyboards available, for every user and budget.

Read full article @ Anandtech