Today's Reviews: Eleven products across nine categories
Eleven reviews in, spanning cases and coolers to prebuilt PCs, printers, and headphones. The through-line was stubbornly consistent: you can still buy flagship features on a budget, but assembling anything has grown pricier. DRAM and GPU costs keep climbing, and this week's verdicts just make that pain more visible.
The reviews are live across Hardware Busters, igor'sLAB, Club386, Funky Kit, Tom's Hardware, TweakTown, NikKTech, and TechPowerUp. Let's begin with the Sharkoon S25-V2 chassis.
Sharkoon's S25-V2 is a budget steel mid-tower that clings to two features that keep disappearing: solid steel side panels and an external 5.25-inch drive bay. Hardware Busters scores it 8/10 in a segment where either trait alone usually earns a raise. It tops out with 360mm radiator support, a Type-C front port, and a closed, office-friendly silhouette.
Hardware Busters: Sharkoon S25-V2 Chassis Review
Sharkoon S25-V2 chassis review: a budget steel mid tower with a 5.25-inch bay, built with an E-ATX system and tested for noise damping and fan noise.
The Fractal Summit wants to be a piece of furniture that can also cool a serious rig. igor'sLAB likes the Scandinavian styling, the FSC-certified oak or walnut front, and the solid wood feet. The build is clean and tool-free. Installation is not. The adjustable GPU-support backplate flexes under heavy loads, grommets are small, and a CPU power cable grazed the top radiator fan in the test rig.
IgorsLAB: Fractal Summit Review: Design Meets Gaming Performance
The Fractal Summit combines Scandinavian-inspired wood details with support for high-performance PCs and good temperatures, but has some design and installation flaws.
Prebuilt PC
The PCSpecialist Noble Extreme is Club386's "gaming PC I'd buy for under £1,900," and at £1,899 it's hard to push back. You get an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and a Gigabyte RX 9070 GRE with 12GB of VRAM in a curved-glass chassis the outlet plainly adores.
Club386 frames the value case around the memory crunch. DDR5 and GPU prices have ballooned, making an RTX 5070-class card "untenable," so a 12GB RX 9070 GRE becomes an "unlikely hero." The AM5 upgrade path, with Zen 7 rumored to stick around, is a hedge against those rising costs.
The numbers back it up. Rainbow Six Siege peaks at 247 fps at full HD and 160 at QHD. Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing manages 66 fps native; flip on FSR and frame gen and you're suddenly at 204.
Club386: PCSpecialist Noble Extreme review: the gaming PC I'd buy for under £1,900
This excellent £1,899 prebuild from PCSpecialist packages an AMD X3D CPU with and a 12GB graphics card into a beautiful, well-managed chassis.
PCSpecialist Noble Extreme review: the gaming PC I'd buy for under £1,900 | Club386
Keep in mind the review unit's RAM actually ran at DDR5-5600, not the 6000 the box lists. Press samples and retail sticks are frequently not the same chip.
There's also a roughly £1,090 premium over a self-built rig. Not cheap. But add in three years of labour and parts coverage, and you might just swallow it.
Cooling, Displays, Gaming Rig, and Headsets
Scythe's MAGOROKU dual-tower cooler runs about $30.50 and earns a perfect 10/10 on price from Funky Kit, while a 7.2/10 overall says it doesn't earn much else. It's a slim 155mm twin-tower aimed at small ITX builds, tested on an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K.
The bad news: its front fan bumps into most gaming RAM, which forces it higher and cuts its own cooling benefit. The warranty is short, and it underwhelms for something its size. Good value. Standard everything else.
Funky Kit: Scythe MAGOROKU Dual-Tower CPU Cooler Review
Brand new dual tower cooler delivers class-leading performance. With newly designed heatsink and fins, this cooler achieves excellent thermal results while consistently unlocking your CPU’s full potential. Installation is quick and easy, with adjustable fans, users can select their favorite RAM to keep PC system performing at its peak.
Alienware's AW3226Q is a 32-inch 4K panel using Tandem Stripe RGB OLED, a technology that only last year sat firmly in flagship territory. Tom's Hardware names it an Editor's-pick, and refresh hits 165Hz with Dolby Vision support.
Here's the catch. There are no practical gamma calibration options, and the out-of-the-box gamma runs a touch light. You'll spend some time tweaking. Otherwise it's among the better OLED monitors Tom's has put through its paces, and the real story is that these panels are finally reaching modest budgets.
Tom's Hardware: Alienware AW3226Q 32-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor review: Sleek design with performance and value to match
Alienware rolls Tandem RGB Stripe OLED tech into a stylish 32-inch gaming monitor for a low price.
The Trak Racer TR80S V6 is a compact, adjustable aluminum cockpit priced at $898 with a GT Pro Racing Bucket Seat included. TweakTown scores it 92% and Recommended, slotting it between entry-level and high-end rigs.
It fills the middle ground nicely. Adjustability is strong, it takes a wide range of wheelbases, and assembly is faster than the bigger TR120S V2. The tradeoffs: the anodized aluminium scratches easily, and the transit foam cracked in the box on the way to the desk.
Trak Racer TR80S V6 Sim Racing Cockpit Review
The Trak Racer TR80S V6 sim racing cockpit offers a compact, adjustable aluminum-profile rig for $898 with a seat, but its finish scratches easily.
EDIFIER's HECATE sub-brand is throwing everything at its G5 MAX THX. It's a "quad-mode" headset with Bluetooth 6.0, 2.4GHz via both USB-A and USB-C adapters, plus wired connectivity, all so it can jump across PC, phone, PS, and Switch.
The spec sheet is heavy: 53mm drivers, THX 7.1.4 virtual surround, Hi-Res Wireless at 96kHz/24-bit, and battery life EDIFIER claims at up to 305 hours on Bluetooth. NikKTech calls it ambitious. Whether that ambition survives the real world depends on how much you actually value cross-platform reach over, say, a lighter price tag.
NikKTech: EDIFIER HECATE G5 MAX THX Spatial Audio Quad-Mode Gaming Headset Review
The EDIFIER HECATE G5 Max enters the crowded wireless gaming headset market with an ambitious feature set that blends gaming-focused technologies, multi-platform compatibility, and premium wireless functionality into a single package.
EDIFIER HECATE G5 MAX THX Spatial Audio Quad-Mode Gaming Headset Review
Keyboards, Power Supplies, and 3D Printers
The Lofree Flow 2 84 for Mac is a low-profile mechanical keyboard built specifically for Mac users, with a native bottom row (Fn, Globe, Control, Option, Command) and Kailh co-developed Surfer switches. igor'sLAB praises the aluminum gasket mount, the hot-swap availability, and VIA support, landing 97.9 points in its browser test.
IgorsLAB: Lofree Flow 2 84 Review: A Great Mac Keyboard
In our review, the Lofree Flow 2 84 impresses with its premium build quality, comfortable typing experience, and excellent sound.
Then there's the price. At ~$159 it's "not a bargain," and the English ANSI QWERTY layout is a heads-up for German QWERTZ buyers. Hot-swap is also limited to compatible Cloud-series switches only.
Corsair's VANGUARD AIR 99 Wireless goes the other direction: a full-size 101-key board that crams a small screen, a rotary dial, and Stream Deck-style macro keys into a low-profile, gasket-mounted body. TechPowerUp opens by noting Corsair is now its most-reviewed keyboard brand, and that this model "makes older Corsair keyboards look Victorian."
TechPowerUp: Corsair VANGUARD AIR 99 WIRELESS Keyboard Review
Corsair VANGUARD AIR 99 WIRELESS Keyboard packs low-profile optical switches, a gasket-mounted feel, and a 1.9-inch screen with a rotary dial into a compact 99% layout. Corsair's Web Hub and iCUE support make tuning easy, while the smooth typing and rich controls stand out.
The Lian Li EG1000Pv2 is the Platinum tier of its second-generation EDGE dual-chamber design. Hardware Busters scores it 7.7/10, and it improves on the Gold V2 with higher efficiency, a quieter fan, and a bundled EDGE Hub V2.
It ships with a 10-year warranty and Cybenetics ETA Platinum certification. So why not higher? Hot OCP points, higher ripple, and a 12V-2×6 cable rated at only 450W hold it back. A 1000W Platinum that costs around $148 is still a steal, but the quirks are real.
Hardware Busters: Lian Li EG1000Pv2 1000W ATX v3.1 PSU Review
Lian Li EG1000Pv2 (EDGE Platinum V2 1000W) review: an ATX v3.1 PSU with ETA Platinum efficiency and LAMBDA A noise, tested against 23 other PSUs.
Lian Li EG1000Pv2 1000W ATX v3.1 PSU Review - Hardware Busters
Formlabs' Form Studio 1 is its first consumer resin printer, and Tom's hands it Editor's Choice at $699 direct, or $749 through MatterHackers. The pitch is blunt: hit print, walk away, come back to a finished part. A "Low Force Display" system reduces peel stress, cartridges slide in and out, and a guided workflow walks you through each job.
It's not everything for everyone. There's no reclaim for spent resin, the slicer is proprietary, and the build plate is small for the money. But for people who want reliability over tinkering, it lands.
Tom's Hardware: Formlabs Form Studio 1 Review: Professional status, consumer price tag
Formlabs brings affordable reliability to the consumer resin market.
Formlabs Form Studio 1 Review: Professional status, consumer price tag
The pattern
Value is the dominant thread, and it's mostly a reaction to the memory crisis. The cheapest picks win on price but cut somewhere: Scythe's RAM clearance and short warranty, Trak Racer's easily-scratched finish and flimsy transit foam, and Lian Li's ripple and cable-rating quirks. Design-first cases look great but don't always nail the engineering. And software has quietly become the differentiator, from Corsair's screen-and-dial setup to Lofree's VIA support.
