Reviews 51951 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Apple AirPods Review
ASRock AB350M Pro4 Review
ASRock H370 Pro4 Motherboard Review
AZZA Hurricane RGB Fans Review
Bengoo G9000 Review
BioStar Racing B360 GT5S Motherboard Review
Corsair HS70 Review
EVGA Supernova 750 G+ Gold Power Supply Review
GIGABYTE MZ31-AR0 (SP3 EPYC) Server Motherboard Review
Insane Robots Xbox One Review
Instax Share SP-3 Printer Review
Intel Core i7-8086K Coffee Lake Review
Intel Spectre Vulnerabilities Now Have a Release Schedule
LEGO The Incredibles Review
MSI GT75 Titan 8RG Review
MXGP Pro Review
Razer Vespula V2 Review
Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB Review
ScreenToGif on Windows 10 Review
Sennheiser GSP 600 Gaming Headset Review
The Crew 2 Video Card Performance Review
Thermaltake View 22 TG Video Review
Thermaltake View 32 TG Edition Chassis Review



Apple AirPods Review

Over a year and a half later, Apple's AirPods are still considered by many to be the best wireless earphones ever made. AppleInsider takes a second look at the popular earbuds and discusses a few tantalizing rumors about what Apple has in store for its AirPods product line.

Sonically, AirPods are definitely not the highest performing earphones available, nor are they the most affordable at $160. But for us, and many other avid fans, AirPods are more than worth the price of entry.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

ASRock AB350M Pro4 Review

Do you need the latest and greatest X470 motherboard to seize the performance potential of the newly refreshed AMD Ryzen processor line? ASRock doesn't think so and is out to prove it with this exceptionally inexpensive B350 Micro ATX board.

Over this past year, AMD has made huge strides in reclaiming the market share it has been losing to Intel over the past decade. The launch of the Ryzen line of processors finally gave AMD the foothold it needed to pull itself back into relevance. The rise of AMD stock may not directly excite many gamers or enthusiast, but the products that fueled that rise certainly caught the attention of many. AMD has now launched their refresh of the original Ryzen processor line, the Ryzen 2000 series. AMD has for quite some time now been a paragon of backwards compatibility, for which they have received well-deserved praise. The launch of the latest Ryzen CPUs should be no exception, but today, I will put that to the test.

ASRock, whose flagship X470 Taichi Ultimate was the first to put my Ryzen 5 2600X through its paces, has a not-quite-so-new board for me to test today: the ASRock AB350M Pro4. The ASRock AB350M Pro4 is based around AMD's B350 chipset and built into the Micro ATX form factor. This board's small dimensions as well as its price are deceptive as the ASRock AB350M Pro4 boasts many of the features and accommodations I would expect from a full fledged X470 board. Dual M.2 slots, AMD Quad CrossFire support, full overclocking support, 7.1 channel audio, and USB Type-C are just a few of these standout features on the ASRock AB350M Pro4.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ASRock H370 Pro4 Motherboard Review

After some Intel X299 and AMD X399 tests there is an ASRock H370 Pro4 motherboard test on OCinside.de with LGA1151 socket for the 8th generation Intel Coffee Lake processor. We tested it with an Intel Core i7-8700K processor and tried to overclock the Intel H370 motherboard - the emphasis is on trying. Of course you will see also interesting thermal images and a 360 degree view as well as several benchmarks. Let's take a look at where the strengths and weaknesses of the inexpensive ASRock H370 Pro4 motherboard may be. And although we are still running an ASRock X299M Extreme4 Intel LGA2066 competition, this ASRock H370 Pro4 Intel LGA1151 motherboard will also be in the draw.

Read full article @ OCInside.de

AZZA Hurricane RGB Fans Review

On our quest to see who has the best RGB fans out there we have a new kit which we are checking out today from AZZA. It is their Hurrican RGB with Lumi controller. This 3-fan kit has a rather unique design as the RGB LEDs illuminate the actual frame of the fan rather than the fan blades. The Lumi controller is actually pretty cool and allows you to control these fans (both speed and RGB effects) with your phone! No more hard buttons to find inside of your case! This kit comes in at $69.99 so not the most expensive kit out there, but not the cheapest either. Let’s jump in and see what this kit is all about!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Bengoo G9000 Review

I never thought a $25 gaming headset could sound this good.

Not everyone can afford to drop upwards of $100 on a high-quality gaming headset. We get it. That's why we love the fact that companies like Bengoo make more affordable options for those who want to graduate from their TV's built-in speaker.

Read full article @ Windows Central

BioStar Racing B360 GT5S Motherboard Review

Up until recently, buying an 9th Generation Intel Coffee Lake CPU has required you to also purchase a high-end Z370 chipset motherboard. Those boards also came with a high-end price tag of $200 or more. One of these new boards, the BioStar Racing B360 GT5S, is on store shelves now for just $109, and it's packing come pretty compelling features.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Corsair HS70 Review

The HS70 is the newest addition to the HS lineup and sits above both the HS60 and HS50 in the range. They look very similar in terms of aesthetics but improve upon the feature set by introducing 2.4GHz low-latency wireless audio and precision-tuned 50mm audio drivers that are capable of producing 20Hz to 20,000Hz. That isn't all on the audio front as they feature support for virtual 7.1 audio as well as a customisable equaliser that can be utilised in Corsair's iCUE software.

Read full article @ Vortez

EVGA Supernova 750 G+ Gold Power Supply Review

As part of their Supernova range of products, we have seen some truly excellent PSU’s manufactured by EVGA. From these, we have never been disappointed in terms of performance, reliability and of course the fantastic guarantees which EVGA places on their products.

As such, we take an in-depth look at the EVGA Supernova 750 G+ power supply. Sometimes referred to as the G1+ (albeit, not on the packaging). With it being fully modular and gold rated in terms of efficiency, we again have the bar set pretty high for EVGA. Despite this level we set for them, we have never failed to be impressed in the past and before we start, we already practically know that this is also going to be good.

Read full article @ eTeknix

GIGABYTE MZ31-AR0 (SP3 EPYC) Server Motherboard Review

Today is a grand day as we have our first motherboard for AMD‘s EPYC processors on the test bench. Since we reviewed Intel’s new server processors, users have been asking us to show what AMD’s EPYC platform can do in comparison. You ask, we deliver! Today we’re taking a closer look at GIGABYTE‘s MZ31-AR0 motherboard (product link) with an SP3 socket for EPYC CPUs.

AMD has truly made a huge comeback with their Zen architecture chips. From the entry-level market APUs over mainstream Ryzen and enthusiast Threadripper to the enterprise-level EPYC processors we’re using today. The value you got is uncomparable while compatibility is high thanks to the x86 architecture.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Insane Robots Xbox One Review

Insane Robots is a game you don't want to miss.

Card battlers are typically games that I don't like very much, often because of their lack of interesting animations, sounds, and visuals. Going into Insane Robots, I was expecting to feel the same way towards it.

However, I quickly fell in love with it due to it having all of the things that are usually lacking from this genre. Before I knew it, I sunk five hours into the game — and that's when I realized that Insane Robots was something special.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Instax Share SP-3 Printer Review

I personally love the idea of a compact mobile printer. We all use our phones to take pictures every time something special comes up, and physical photos are always extra meaningful. But to do that you have to go through a computer, get the photo paper, cut it out. Ugh, right?

Good news is there are many smartphone printers on the market right now, and the SP-3 is just one of them. The SP-3 is the third in line of portable instant printers by Fujifilm. Its predecessors the SP-1 and SP-2 had not seen much change apart from the battery. So what’s so special about the SP-3?

Read full article @ VR Zone

Intel Core i7-8086K Coffee Lake Review

The i7-8086K was launched for the 40th Anniversary of the 8086 processor from Intel. It's a beefed up Coffee Lake CPU, and it's designed to fulfill the legacy of its predecessor. It's such a big deal that Intel gave away 8086 units out of a supposed 50K (Intel didn't confirm this number) for free around the world. Intel sent an ES sample our way for testing, and today we will go over the CPU and how it performs against the 8700K and other CPUs.

If we compare the i7-8086Kto the 8700K, they are very similar, but the 8086K has a higher Max turbo of up to 5GHz, which is pretty high. Like the 8700K and 8700 the CPU has an all-core Turbo of 4.3GHz, so if you use all cores at the same time, you shouldn't expect any different results. The CPU has a 95W TDP, 12MB of SmartCache, and a base frequency of 4GHz. It supports up to 64GB of memory and is rated up to 2666MHz for official memory support.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Intel Spectre Vulnerabilities Now Have a Release Schedule

Intel has adopted a release schedule for new Spectre vulnerability disclosures. According to The Register, starting today new patches will be released quarterly to patch the latest exploits. This is akin to the Windows Patch Tuesday. I never thought that hardware would have a patch release schedule, but on the bright side, organizations can now plan in advance. I would manually set a restore point after reading this.....

The new Spectre-class side-channel vulnerability to be disclosed today in Intel's processors can be exploited through bounds-check bypass store attacks. This means malicious code already running on an Intel-powered computer can leverage speculative execution to potentially alter function pointers and return addresses in other threads to hijack applications. At that point, the malware can extract secrets from the system, and cause other merry mischief. The good news is that software mitigations available today for Spectre variant 1 will thwart bounds-check bypass store attacks. Thus, web browsers and other applications employing anti-Spectre mechanisms should be safe.

Read full article @ HardOCP

LEGO The Incredibles Review

Nostalgia is weird, isn’t it? If you had asked me if I was nostalgic for any Pixar movie outside of Toy Story, I’d have likely scoffed. Thinking back, I only seem to remember slightly-above-average CGI movies with notable celebrities as voice actors. Nothing too exciting, basically, and very much par for the course these days. But then I jumped into LEGO The Incredibles 2, which kicks off immediately as the original movie ends. And suddenly, I really want to know where this is going.

In case you couldn’t tell from the title of the game, LEGO The Incredibles 2 is a LEGO adaptation of the new Pixar movie, The Incredibles 2, which follows the super Parr family, last seen on the big screen fourteen (14!) years ago. I was only 13 then, so it actually makes perfect sense that, deep down, I hold a weird fondness for The Incredibles that I didn’t even myself remember.

Read full article @ Wccftech

MSI GT75 Titan 8RG Review

With Intel's latest CPU refresh, MSI have shoehorned an Intel Core i9 8950HK CPU, with a boost clock of 4.8GHz and 12mb of L3 cache included. The 6core/12thread CPU should be capable of some insane horsepower, if the chassis can remain cool. That feat may not seem too challenging when you consider the size of the Titan, but do remember that there's also NVIDIA's fastest mobile GPU wedged in there, the NVIDIA GTX 1080.

Read full article @ Vortez

MXGP Pro Review

I’m not actually certain if my time with MXGP Pro is déjà vu or déjà vécu right now. The former is a feeling of familiarity, where there’s just something there and you feel you know it. Déjà vécu, on the other hand, is a feeling of recollection. A feeling that you have already lived through that moment. The more you know.

So, following that little public service announcement, what do I think about MXGP Pro? The astute among you have likely already figured out that I think the game is a little too similar to older titles. It doesn’t really help that, this year alone, I’ve reviewed three titles by Milestone. Monster Energy Supercross back in February. Gravel I reviewed in March. Just last month brought MotoGP 18. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a break.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Razer Vespula V2 Review

I've never before in my life purchased a "premium" mouse mat. Razer's Vespula V2 made me not regret it.

When it comes to mouse mats, I've always gone for cheap and cheerful. Cheap plastic mouse pads have this annoying tendency to curve upward at the edges over time, though, and budget rubbery ones get dirty quickly and easily, and cleaning them isn't always easy.

My Microsoft IntelliMouse Classic is good enough to not require a mouse mat at all for surface recognition, however, the edge of my desk has become increasingly annoying on my wrist, so I decided to look at buying something specifically with wrist support (navigating dozens of NSFW anime waifu mouse mats in the process).

Read full article @ Windows Central

Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB Review

Samsung announced their 3-bit MLC V-NAND flash technology with the latest SSD 860 EVO solid state drive series. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO, which pairs 64-cell layer V-NAND and 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache buffer with their MJX controller to produce up to 550 MB/s reads at 98,000 IOPS and 520 MB/s writes at 90,000 IOPS, and we compare SATA 6 GB/s performance against all the leading SSD storage competition.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

ScreenToGif on Windows 10 Review

Whether you say gif with a hard or soft "G," you can use ScreenToGif to easily record your screen.

GIFs are a big part of the web, ranging from insightful sports commentary to hilarious memes. ScreenToGif for Windows 10 makes it easy to record content from your screen, webcam, or a sketchboard, and then create GIFs to share.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Sennheiser GSP 600 Gaming Headset Review

Sennheiser is one of the most respected names in the audio world and especially with headphone users. Almost five years ago, they released the GAME ONE headset and set a new high water mark for PC gaming audio. In late 2016, the company began reshaping its gaming line with a new “GSP” series, first with the entry-level GSP 300, which is still one of the best headsets you can buy for under $90. This year, they’re taking on the other end of the spectrum and releasing a new gaming flagship: the GSP 600. With an MSRP of $249, it doesn’t come cheap, but is easily one of the best headsets in its class.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

The Crew 2 Video Card Performance Review

Usually we don’t need to compare a new game to its previous release. However, this time it is going to actually be important to take a look at the previous title The Crew in order to compare graphics settings. There is an important point we need to make and point out regarding The Crew 2 versus The Crew. We’ll talk about it some on this page, and more in the conclusion. Therefore, go check out our The Crew Performance Video Card Review we conducted back in December of 2014. Take note of the graphical features and image quality supported in the previous title.

Today’s evaluation is going to take ten current GPUs and test the game at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p. We will find out what the best playable game settings are, how the video cards compare in performance and settings, and even compare specific game settings to find out how they affect performance.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Thermaltake View 22 TG Video Review

So, after watching the View 22 video you might be asking why I decided to give it the gold award? Well, when you take into account the price, the aesthetics and the quality it totally deserves the award. The price at the time of this review is around £55-60 which puts in the bracket of decent but not expecting the world for your money and Thermaltake delivered; you get a very well engineered case with a unique curved front panel with a tempered glass side panel, and that’s just externally.

Internally, you get a whole host of radiator and fan mounting options which if wanted could fit a whole custom loop with relative ease as well as a well thought out (bar one) hard drive and SSD mounts which can be moved if desired to it easier to install different types of hardware as well.

Read full article @ Play3r

Thermaltake View 32 TG Edition Chassis Review

Thermaltake has been unleashing a lot of new chassis products this year. Of course, that’s not uncommon for Thermaltake, as they already have a pretty significant range in this market, and that’s not counting their cooling, PSU, and peripheral products! The View 32 is the latest in their range to get the tempered glass and RGB treatment. I know glass and RGB aren’t for everyone, and the market is saturated right now. However, there’s plenty of options out there without it, and right now it seems price is the big battleground for these two “premium” features. So let’s dive in and take a closer look at what Thermaltake has to offer!

Read full article @ eTeknix