Reviews 51946 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

32GB Modules from G.Skill and ZADAK Reviewed
A day in the office ... without Office
Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case Review
Creative Super X-Fi Review
Creative SXFI Amp Review
Dell XPS 13 (9380) 2019 Review
Fractal Design Meshify S2 Black Dark TG Mid-Tower Review
Fractal Design Meshify S2 Black Tempered Glass Edition Review
Fractal Design Meshify S2 Case Review
Fractal Design Meshify S2 Review
Fractal Design Meshify S2 Review
LG 34GK950F Curved Gaming Monitor Review
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Review Part Two: 1440p and OC
Patriot EP A1 128GB & 256GB MicroSDXC Cards Review
SilverStone Argon AR01 V3 Air Cooler Review
Unruly Heroes Review



32GB Modules from G.Skill and ZADAK Reviewed

Two memory module companies, G.Skill and ZADAK, have developed a new memory format with double capacity DDR4 memory. These new modules put the equivalent of two standard modules onto one PCB, making one memory module act like two. Both companies have introduced 2x32 GB kits. As a result, these memory modules are double the capacity over regular DDR4 memory, with the downside that they are also double the height. We have tested both of the available kits using this technique, both coming in at DDR4-3200: the G.Skill TridentZ RGB DC DDR4-3200 and the ZADAK Shield RGB DC DDR4-3200.

Read full article @ Anandtech

A day in the office ... without Office

Something rather interesting today, methinks. A detailed, thorough article about long-term usage of LibreOffice and Google Docs as an alternative to Microsoft Office, covering baseline usage, visual and functional inconsistencies and bugs, theming, spreadsheet management, styles, charts, hyperlinks editing, currency formats, copy & paste, network latency and speed, collaboration, sharing, version control, special characters, file conversion quality and accuracy, various other benefits and problems, other considerations, and more. Come, come.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case Review

After taking a year off -- much to the chagrin of iPhone X owners -- Apple recently released a new version of its Smart Battery Case. This time, it comes with new features, a refined design, and is available for the first the first time in a larger size.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Creative Super X-Fi Review

When we visited Creative at their suite at CES 2019, they sat us down for a private demo of their Super X-Fi technology. Now, theyve been demonstrating this hardware for a couple of years now behind the scenes.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Creative SXFI Amp Review

Creative finally brings to market its Super X-Fi technology built over 20 years of R&D. It aims to be a radical new change to the audio world by not only offering extremely convincing surround sound using stereo headphones, but generally enhancing the audio experience even for mono recordings provided you have a certain set of compatible devices.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Dell XPS 13 (9380) 2019 Review

The thing about striving for perfection is that it is not truly attainable, and you can drive yourself mad trying to get there. Be that as it may, Dell has come closer than most with its premium line of XPS 13 laptops, which in our experience are some of the finest thin and light notebooks available, both in terms of their beautiful design, as well as all-around performance.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Fractal Design Meshify S2 Black Dark TG Mid-Tower Review

In the beginning, Fractal Design created the Define S chassis, and the world must have loved it. While in today's cases, it can still compete, but there was room for improvement. Improvements led to the Define S2 chassis, which in today's market is quite the contender...

Read full article @ TweakTown

Fractal Design Meshify S2 Black Tempered Glass Edition Review

Fractal is launching the new version of the Meshify case line which is all about airflow, the Fractal Design Meshify S2. Fractal tends to build a more subdued case. Lacking from Fractal's line up are RGB LED-laden chassis. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for RGB LEDs.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Fractal Design Meshify S2 Case Review

The Meshify S2 comes in at a retail of $149, and it is available in a few different flavors including black and white, and with light or dark tinted glass. There is even a version with metal panels on both sides. From a bang-for-the-buck perspective, I think the Meshify S2 is fairly priced. There are many cases in the sub $100 range, but you would have to buy two or three cases to get the features found in the Meshify S2 - which of course is not practical. It is hard to build a system in more than one case! So Fractal Design takes the Meshify to the next level and hits the ball out of the park by combining the best of two existing cases into one new design.

Read full article @ OCC

Fractal Design Meshify S2 Review

Define S2 gets Meshified. HEXUS readers were divided on their opinions of Fractal Design's Meshify C when the mid-tower chassis launched back in 2017. One user called it "a case of arbitrary angle syndrome," while another "quite liked the modern art vibe of the front mesh design."

Said case was Fractal's attempt to offer something different from its typically staid enclosures, and though we're historically fond of the firm's Define Series, it was nice to see Meshify mix things up a bit. We evidently weren't alone, as sales of Meshify C were strong enough for Fractal to conjure up a larger alternative in the form of the Meshify S2.

Read full article @ Hexus

Fractal Design Meshify S2 Review

The Fractal Design Meshify S2 may look like the original Meshify at first sight, but is essentially a Define S2 with a new, cooler front and mesh top cover, which is actually great as that case is an excellent, award-winning base to build the Meshify S2 on!

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

LG 34GK950F Curved Gaming Monitor Review

LG delivers 144Hz, FreeSync 2 and HDR in the capable 34GK950F. It’s a curved ultra-wide IPS panel with 3440x1440 resolution and DCI-P3 color. With an impressive feature set, it should be on every buyer’s short list.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Review Part Two: 1440p and OC

In part one of our review of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card we looked at gaming performance using only 1920x1080 and 3840x2160 results, and while UHD is the current standard for consumer televisions (and an easy way to ensure GPU-bound performance) more than twice as many gamers play on a 2560x1440 display (3.89% vs. 1.42% for 3840x2160) according to Steam hardware survey results.

Adding these 1440p results was planned from the beginning, but time constraints made testing at three resolutions before getting on a plane for CES impossible (though in retrospect UHD should have been the one excluded from part one, and in future Ill approach it that way). Regardless, we now have those 1440p results to share, having concluded testing using the same list of games and synthetic benchmarks we saw in the previous installment.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Patriot EP A1 128GB & 256GB MicroSDXC Cards Review

With a price/performance ratio that stands out from the crowd and several available capacities (64/128/256GB) the EP A1 series of MicroSDXC cards by Patriot are the ideal choice for consumers on a budget.

Read full article @ NikKTech

SilverStone Argon AR01 V3 Air Cooler Review

It's a budget air cooler for £30 - but how does it fare against the competition?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Unruly Heroes Review

Unruly Heroes is a side scroller puzzler/beat 'em up that sits squarely between Trine and Child of Light. You play as four interchangeable heroes without almost-but-not-quite unique skills, and charge through some extremely large and vertical levels, smashing your way through puzzles and hidden areas.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp