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Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Arozzi Colonna Microphone Review
Best SSDs: Q3 2018
CHERRY KC 6000 Slim Keyboard Review
DLink HD Wi-Fi Camera 8010LH Review
How to Recover Data From a Corrupt ZIP File
LG 27UD59 Review
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 and 2 Review
Microsoft Font Maker Review
MyDigitalSSD Pocket Vault eXpress Portable SSD Review
Patriot Evlvr Portable Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD Capsule Review
Rosewill NEON K81 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review
Skylight Frame Review
Thermaltake Smart RGB 500w Power Supply Review
Will PC Component Prices Kill System Builders?



Arozzi Colonna Microphone Review

Gaming, streaming, and uploading multimedia content to YouTube—or other social media and podcasts—are all things some users do on a regular basis. Other than a decent PC, a web cam and microphone are essential for a good result. Since there is an abundance of companies with a variety of products to choose from, users tend to get confused by prices, features, and brand names, which has many focus on advertisements and the latest buying drifts instead of on what they actually need. Thus, buyers usually go to the cashier with something that probably has a nice box and fancy specifications instead of having checked on the product's actual features. If you want to avoid this, we strongly recommend you spend some time reading through reviews and other user opinions before purchasing such a product.

Companies continuously emerge with at least a product at a competitive price that antagonizes a renowned for some praise for a start. After all, in most cases, the initial impression is what matters the most. Five years ago, a Swedish company enrolling in a variety of PC component categories was established under the name Arozzi. Nowadays, that same company is trying to prove that its products are worth considering, and it is trying to climb up the market chain. Last year, we evaluated a gaming chair from the company, and it is now nigh time we got a glimpse of more Arozzi products. This time around, we have on our test bench a vintage-desktop-designed microphone with a promise of studio-quality sound. The Colonna is compatible with PCs, Macs, and gaming consoles. Furthermore, it features a 3.5 mm headphone jack to which you can attach your headphone's cable, while a 5/8 " threaded mount is also available to make sure it can be mounted straight to a microphone boom arm. The Colonna is a "plug & play" microphone from Arozzi with a sub-€100 (around $122.75) price tag and promise of high-quality sound.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Best SSDs: Q3 2018

SSD prices continue to decline, even as DRAM prices are on the rise. Most of the industry has now completed the transition to 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, but supplies of many older generation models are still plentiful. In most market segments our top recommendations are current-generation drives because 64L 3D NAND brought significant improvements to performance and power efficiency, but some older models are cheap enough to be very compelling deals.

Above are some recommendations of good deals in each market segment. Several of these aren't the cheapest option in their segment and instead are quality products worth paying a little extra for. The next table is a rough summary of what constitutes a good deal on a current model in today's market. Sales that don't beat these prices are only worth a second glance if the drive is nicer than average for its product segment.

Read full article @ Anandtech

CHERRY KC 6000 Slim Keyboard Review

The new KC 6000 Slim keyboard does come with a premium look and is ideal for people that enjoy laptop-style keys, even when working with desktops. The SX CHERRY switches are silent and offer a low-key travel of just about 2.5mm; these are rated for 10 million keypresses so we would recommend the keyboard for productivity work as well.

About CHERRY:
"CHERRY GmbH, with its headquarters in Auerbach in der Oberpfalz, Germany, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer input devices with an emphasis on office, industrial and security markets, as well as switches for mechanical keyboards among others for PC gaming. Cherry GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of the technology group ZF Friedrichshafen AG."

Read full article @ Mad Shirmps

DLink HD Wi-Fi Camera 8010LH Review

We have probably reviewed more security camera solutions from DLink than any other vendor. We started in late 2013 with the 2332L and since then have seen nearly every new solution since then apart from the Omna lineup, that has been hard to get to this point. That said, today we have the first of three new solutions that made their debut at CES.

Read full article @ TweakTown

How to Recover Data From a Corrupt ZIP File

As what may be the most common and convenient way to store and send multiple files, the ZIP file format is used by essentially everyone online. That being the case, there's a good chance you'll eventually come across one that has been corrupted, not least because only a single corrupt bit in one file out of dozens inside the ZIP could prevent your file archiver from opening or extracting its contents.

Corrupt files can result from a variety of issues including bad drive sectors, malware, an incomplete download or transfer such as during a drop in your connection, or any other sudden interruption like a power failure or an improper shut down while working with the ZIP file.

Read full article @ TechSpot

LG 27UD59 Review

Near the end of 2016 we reviewed a 4K-monitor that proved to be extremely popular, the LG 27UD58. This was not very surprising, as this 27-inch ultra-hd monitor offered an unprecedented price-performance ratio at the time. Whereas direct competitors had prices ranging from 445 pounds / 500 euros to 530 pounds / 600 euros for an ips-panel, this LG was available for well under 354 pounds / 400 euros. The successor to that monitor has been available for a while now, the 27UD59. At the time of writing we can find it for less than 265 pounds / 300 euros in our Price Comparison, which also makes this monitor rather inexpensive. Looking at other monitors in this price range you can only expect to find a tn-panel. This raises the question, are we as satisfied with the ’59 as we were with the 27UD58?

The phenomenon of the ultra-hd monitor is probably something you know well enough by now, which is why we will not go into great detail here. With a 27-inch resolution, the density of 8 million pixels is already high enough to make use of software scaling, but in 2018 this is not a big issue with Windows 10 and modern software. Mainly the relatively small applications - such as driver software of gaming peripherals, unfortunately - that do not always work well together, but if necessary you can still manage 100% scaling with 27-inch 4K. Especially if it is only necessary for a short while.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 and 2 Review

All throughout my youth, a new Mega Man game was a release to be celebrated. I had grown up alongside the Blue Bomber and his various adventures against eight robot masters and their current evil leader. Moreso than the original eight, I was much more interested in the Mega Man X series and could routinely cite the optimal path to Sigma for the first couple of titles. Some of the PlayStation era Mega Man X titles have been fairly notorious for not holding up as well although I still find them all intriguing in their own ways. There may not be any new additions like Mega Man Battle & Chase in the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 but players will still get all eight mainline titles together in a pair of great packages.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Microsoft Font Maker Review

Forget Comic Sans. Microsoft Font Maker lets you create custom fonts out of your handwriting.

Windows 10 has always made it easy to install different fonts, but now you can easily create your own fonts out of your handwriting. All you need to do is download the Microsoft Font Maker app and write some characters and sentences using a stylus.

Read full article @ Windows Central

MyDigitalSSD Pocket Vault eXpress Portable SSD Review

When our friends over at MyDigitalSSD asked if we wanted to review their Pocket Vault eXpress (PVX) Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD we said send it on over! It boasts wicked fast transfer speeds up to 1,600 MB/s read and 1,000 MB/s write, so if you want blazing file transfer speeds on a super portable drive look no further. The MyDigitalSSD PVX is available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities for $189.99, $279.99 and $479.99, respectively.

Once MyDigitalSSD Pocket Vault eXpress 1TB drive showed up for review we had a strange case of deja vu when we saw the retail packing and drive. We’ve seen this same packaging before and the drive itself was identical to one that we reviewed back in May 2018. Legit Reviews was the first site to review the Patriot EVLVR Thunderbolt 3 portable SSD and this drives looks to be pretty much identical besides the retail packaging and enclosure color.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Patriot Evlvr Portable Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD Capsule Review

Phison introduced a reference design for entry-level Thunderbolt 3 SSDs at the 2018 CES. Patriot was one of the first to announce a product based on the reference design - the Patriot Evlvr comes with a PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSD sporting the Phison E8 controller and Toshiba BiCS 3D TLC NAND. An Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt controller bridges the NVMe SSD to a Thunderbolt 3 device port. The PCIe 3.0 x2 link means that the product is not going to set any benchmark records. However, Patriot plans to make it quite wallet-friendly. Read on to find out how the product performs, particularly in the price to performance ratio aspect.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Rosewill NEON K81 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

It seems as if not a week can go by without seeing the release of a new RGB-enabled device. From fans and light strips, to keyboards and mice, there are hundreds, if not thousands of RGB products available to PC enthusiasts. Rosewill, a company that has been around since 2004, is right there in the mix, providing RGB products. One of their latest keyboard designs is the NEON K81 RGB, a mechanical keyboard with per-key RGB illumination, as well as a configurable RGB outer rim. Available with either Blue or Brown Kailh switches, the K81 is a full sized keyboard with a subtle but stylish look. Let’s take a closer look!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Skylight Frame Review

It costs as much as a lot of other great frames, but it doesn't offer the same perks.

Digital frames got a bad rap for a few years, no doubt due to the introduction of cheap tablets, complicated management tools, and stagnating design. They are, however, making a bit of a comeback, with companies like Nixplay and Pixal getting in on the action.

The Skylight Frame I have here to review promises effortless setup and a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee — we're off to a good start. At first glance, it looks quite nice, and at about $159 it should stand up to the other premier frames on the market, like the Nix Lux or Nixplay Seed, both which I reviewed. Let's dig past the surface and see whether or not the Skylight Frame is worth the dough.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Thermaltake Smart RGB 500w Power Supply Review

In recent months we’re getting to see more and more interesting products from Thermaltake. Just to clarify, we mean interesting in a good way. We only make that point just in case you were wondering. Despite producing gaming equipment, chassis and cooling solution Thermaltake are starting to carve themselves a very solid reputation for their power supplies. Having reviewed many of them before, we have never failed to be impressed.

In this instance, we take a look at the Thermaltake Smart RGB 500w power supply. At 500w this sits perfectly for the vast majority of gaming PC requirements. This is particularly with the more modern processors which are designed to run at much lower power requirements than older models. The Thermaltake Smart RGB is an inexpensive, non-modular power supply which is ideal for those looking for the essentials to get going in their build. The impressive RGB effects though shouldn’t confuse you into thinking this is just a basic power supply. It’s actually got a lot of bells and whistles that wouldn’t look out of place for those who are big fans of system lighting.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Will PC Component Prices Kill System Builders?

When I built my current gaming system it was in May last year. With one or two exceptions it was a brand new system. There are, after all, always parts you can salvage or reuse from your prior build. I was quite keen to do it but had been holding off for a little while. Why? Ryzen was coming! For months we had all been anticipating the new AMD Ryzen processors and when they arrived they were proven to be both inexpensive and great performers. Admittedly, not on the level of Intel in terms of performance, but still, for the price they were excellent.

As part of any system build though, there were a lot of parts and components that I had to get organised. A chassis, a power supply, SSD, motherboard, graphics card etc.

Read full article @ eTeknix