Reviews 51951 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AKRacing Obsidian Office Chair Review
ASUS ProArt PA32UC 32in Monitor Review
Biostar Racing X470GTN Review
General: Samson MixPad MX124FX Streaming Mixer / Q2U Dynamic Podcasting Microphone Combined Review
Intel Kaby Lake G Core i7-8705G Review
Intel Optane Memory Update: Making Hard Drives Perform Like Fast SSDs
Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Review
Marshall Multi-Room Speakers Review
SilverStone SFX SX650-G 650W Power Supply Review
Sony WF-SP700N Review
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Nintendo Switch Review



AKRacing Obsidian Office Chair Review

Whether you’re someone that’s at a computer for one hour a day or ten, having the right support for your back can be the single most important upgrade for your workstation. As Twitch and Micer streamers have grown in popularity, so too have the brands of chairs that support these talented influencers. AKRacing has been there from the beginning and their line of gaming chairs have typically been colorful and racer-inspired. While the latter is still certainly true, AKRacing has been toning down the bright colors with their line of office series. We recently had the pleasure of trying out the newest AKRacing Obsidian in the office to help consumers decide if going for a top of the line office chair makes a difference when it comes to gaming in comfort.

Being my second chair review for Wccftech, I found myself exploring much of the same criteria as for when I first got hands on the Respawn RSP-205. Being roughly double the price investment as Respawn’s flagship chair, surely there had to be some upgrades to justify the difference. Prospective buyers will be pleased to know that much of what the AKRacing Obsidian offers in its massive box is worth the investment.

Read full article @ Wccftech

ASUS ProArt PA32UC 32in Monitor Review

It's the most colour-accurate screen we've tested - but it will set you back £2000. You can pick up a reasonable monitor for under £100 these days. But what if you have more like two thousand to spend? This is the princely sum you will need to part with in order to buy the ASUS ProArt PA32UC. In reality, this screen is in a different league to our usual gaming-oriented monitors – a much more professional league, where people earn a living from creating graphics perfection, so they need a near-perfect screen on which to do so.

The PA32UC isn’t the largest screen we’ve seen by any means. In fact, at 32in diagonal, it’s only slightly on the large side by today’s standards. It does boast 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160) and uses a premium IPS panel, although even then W have seen higher resolutions, in particular the Philips Brilliance 275P4VYKEB 5K monitor.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Biostar Racing X470GTN Review

Biostar gets in the Ryzen 2000 game in a very small way. The Biostar Racing X470GTN packs a lot of motherboard into the tiny Mini-ITX package. With a price of less than $125, it's one of the more affordable Ryzen motherboards, yet its performance doesn't disappoint and matches the ASRock Taichi.

Since the birth of the transistor, the evolution of microchips can be distilled into one word: "miniaturization". The performance desktop has been more resistant to this phenomenon than say, cell phones or laptops, but over the past decade, the small form factor desktop has gained significant traction. Biostar, a leading manufacturer of affordable performance motherboards, has once again stepped into the market with "miniaturization" in mind. The Biostar Racing X470GTN is a new motherboard based on the AMD X470 chipset that aims to be mini in all the right ways, from the Mini-ITX form factor to the MSRP.

The Biostar Racing X470GTN might be small, but Biostar is boasting some impressive features and performance, including a fully fleshed out audio experience with Blu Ray Audio and Hi-fi connectors and isolation, a modern storage interface with a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, one Type-A and one Type-C, as well as a modern aesthetic with three controllable LED zones; one for the VRM heatsink and two through 5050 RGB headers. Last but not least, there is full overclocking support.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

General: Samson MixPad MX124FX Streaming Mixer / Q2U Dynamic Podcasting Microphone Combined Review

Congratulations, you?ve become a streamer. You?ve used your headset mic, earned affiliate status, and are finally starting to consider the money making potential of your hobby. If this describes you, then there?s a good chance you?ve already considered how you can increase the quality of your stream without breaking the bank. The Samson MixPad MX124FX mixer and Q2U XLR/USB microphone, all for under $200. But is it worth the investment?

Read full article @ MMORPG

Intel Kaby Lake G Core i7-8705G Review

Today, we’re finally going to explore Kaby Lake G, one of the most unexpected and interesting pieces of hardware to come from Intel in a while. This is the first ever chip that combines an Intel CPU and AMD GPU onto the one piece of silicon, forming what is essentially the fastest APU-style processor on the market.

It’s not quite the same as an APU or SoC, but it does bring together a powerful CPU and highly capable GPU onto a single, compact chip.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Intel Optane Memory Update: Making Hard Drives Perform Like Fast SSDs

When Intel initially released its Optane Memory line-up, it was one of the most potent and effective storage acceleration products available, right out of the gate. Due to its 3D Xpoint memory technology, which enables consistent, low-latency, high-speed data transfers at low-queue depths, Intel’s Optane Memory is ideally suited for caching smaller chunks of data in consumer systems. Couple Optane Memory’s unique performance characteristics with Intel’s robust caching algorithms and it showcases the effectiveness of Intel’s solution with today’s PCs.

Intel has since updated its Optane Memory line-up with a 64GB drive and some new software that enables acceleration of secondary storage volumes...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Review

An outstanding laptop with an "OK" display.

Last year I reviewed the ThinkPad T470 and came away impressed with what was on offer. Here was a laptop with a hot-swappable battery, lots of ports, a great keyboard, and the needed performance to get through a day's work. It also was plagued by a dim display and poor speakers, things that most business-oriented laptops suffer from.

Here now is the refreshed ThinkPad T480, with 8th Gen Intel Core CPUs, more display choices, a discrete GPU option, and a chassis that's nearly identical. Let's take a look at where it has improved over last year and how well it fares in the business market as a whole....

Read full article @ Windows Central

Marshall Multi-Room Speakers Review

AppleInsider checks out Marshall's Stanmore and Action multi-room speakers to test out if they are solid options for the wireless speaker fan, even if they only support only the original AirPlay. These speakers were added alongside Marshall's existing Bluetooth models, making the decision that much more difficult for potential buyers.

All of Marshall's speakers share similar aesthetics, a bold retro design to complement the impressive sound that they put out.

Read full article @ AppleInsider

SilverStone SFX SX650-G 650W Power Supply Review

SilverStone is back with us today with its new small form factor SX650-G. This one has a bigger fan and a few more connectors than the previous models, so we are expecting great results from this SFX PSU. This one clocks in at 819 watts per liter and does carry a gold efficiency rating. Flat shorty cables are stock with tiny builds in mind. SilverStoneTek is a company best known for its high quality cases but its product lines extend into other components such as cooling, power, fans, storage, and so on. As a company, Silverstone has built up this impressive product repertoire in a very short time having been founded in 2003. Today, however we are interested in its power supplies which are comprised of the Strider, SFX, Nightjar, Gemini, and Zeus model lines that range from 300W to 1500W DC output. For this review, we are looking at one of SilverStone’s SFX units, the SX650-G, which is produced in conjunction with Sirfa.

Sirfa Electronics Co., Ltd. is a name that is not that familiar to most users but Sirfa has been around since 1996 when Sirtec established Sirfa as a factory in the Sirtec group on mainland China. In June 2008, Sirtec sold off its interest in Sirfa making the company independent of the Sirtec brand but still in business with High Power. As such, while we have not seen any Sirfa produced power supplies under the Sirfa brand, some of the Sirtec units of the past were produced at the Sirfa facility. Additionally, we have seen Sirfa providing OEM services for Thermaltake, Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Tuniq, Lepa, SilverStone, and others with very mixed results.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Sony WF-SP700N Review

Summertime is no time for over-ear headphones (as the sweat smears on my QC-35 earpads will attest). So when Sony asked me to review its new truly wireless WF-SP700N earbuds, the timing was perfect. Despite their unimaginative branding, these are actually good sports earbuds, with an acoustic noise canceling feature that's a rarity in wearables this small. The WF-SP700N also gives you the option to disable that ANC to allow external sound though, keeping you from getting surprised by a cyclist on your morning jog.

Unfortunately, these buds also make some pretty big compromises – from aesthetics to battery life to the bulky case that comes alongside them. Are they a good fit for you? Join me for the MrMobile WF-SP700N review – and if you decide you're more of an over-ear listener after all, don't miss my MDR-1000X review from a while back!...

Read full article @ Windows Central

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Nintendo Switch Review

Even after playing DOOM on Nintendo Switch last year, I had my doubts about this port. In fact, I likely had doubts about this port precisely because of DOOM. We all know that DOOM on Nintendo Switch is a shockingly good port for the system, but slowdowns and frame drops still happened, coupled with motion blur that could at times render the image to be, well, a struggle to comprehend. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is, in my opinion, a better looking game than DOOM, so I didn’t expect much from the Switch port. More frame drops than DOOM exhibited is what I expected. Blurrier textures and poor performance that would make it difficult to run and gun the way I wanted. But I am so happy to say that I was wrong.

Read full article @ Wccftech