Reviews 52118 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Arctic BioniX F120 and F140 Fans Review
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Case Review
G.Skill Ripjaws MX780 RGB Game Mouse Review
Gigabyte Z370N WiFi Motherboard Review
OWC Mercury Helios 3 Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure Review
SilverStone TS421S 4-Disk SATA/SAS Disk Enclosure Review
Solid State Buyers Guide: 69 SATA SSDs Review
SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth Headset Review
Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS
XPG EMIX I30 5.2 Surround In-Ear Gaming Headset Review
Zotac GT 1030 2 GB - Video Review



Arctic BioniX F120 and F140 Fans Review

In this review I'm taking a look at the new BioniX fans. These were introduced a couple of months ago and they're positioned as this new flagship fans from Arctic. As the names suggest, the BioniX F120 is a 120mm model, while the Bionix F140 has a diameter of 140mm. These fans were designed to offer a low noise level, low vibration and high airflow output.

Read full article @ DV Hardware

be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Case Review

be quiet! is a company that when we were introduced to them mainly made power supplies, CPU coolers, and fans. Not that long ago they started to venture into cases and actually made a pretty good name for themselves in that area. Today we have the pleasure of checking out their flagship PC case, the Dark Base Pro 900. This massive case has room inside for some of the most insane setups, comes with three of be quiet’s own SilentWings 3 PWM fans, has a removable motherboard tray and modular internal design, two included LED strips, and even an integrated wireless charger for Qi enabled devices. It seems like be quiet! has though of everything possible with this case. Let’s jump in and see if that is true!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

G.Skill Ripjaws MX780 RGB Game Mouse Review

We review on the G.Skill Ripjaws MX780 RGB mouse, the device is sturdy and aesthetically pleasing with configurable RGB LEDs and has a grip that is intensely impressive.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Gigabyte Z370N WiFi Motherboard Review

If our X99 and X299 Mini-ITX motherboard reviews revealed anything, it’s that we, the enthusiast PC community, should have pushed manufacturers a little harder to develop motherboards for AMD’s proposed DTX form factor. Case makers were onboard, as the DTX proposal brought us the double-slot cube cases that could hold a Mini-ITX motherboard and double-slot graphics card. But DTX also extended board depth by 74mm, providing more space for DIMM slots and big voltage regulators without forcing cases to be either taller or wider. Yet the boards never came, and case makers repurposed the leftover space at the front of their cases for 3.5” drive bays. Because Micro-ATX is only semi-compact, Mini-ITX remains the only truly compact solution for performance enthusiasts.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

OWC Mercury Helios 3 Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure Review

Thunderbolt is the apex of external connectivity I/O. With Gen 3, we now have access to 40 Gb/s of throughput which opens up the window to a whole host of devices. OWC, over the last two generations, has deployed the Mercury Helios to enable users a greater level of customization with Thunderbolt technology. The Mercury Helios 3 is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure as the name suggests. It is a single slot solution supporting half-length cards up to 7.5", full height and double width as well. Features include dual Thunderbolt 3 ports allowing daisy chaining up to five additional devices along with miniDP for displays supporting resolutions up to 4K60. Internally, we have a full PCI-E x16 slot with 75 watts of power support. Compatibility includes macOS 10.12 and later, Windows 10, and BootCamp support for Windows. The MSRP comes in at $199.99 with a three-year warranty.

Read full article @ TweakTown

SilverStone TS421S 4-Disk SATA/SAS Disk Enclosure Review

While SilverStone is mostly known for their computer cases, power supplies, and other peripherals, with the TS421S they have a compelling four-disk drive enclosure on their hands. The TS421S drive storage device supports up to four SAS/SATA 2.5-inch drives over a single mini-SAS SFF-8088 cable.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Solid State Buyers Guide: 69 SATA SSDs Review

You can consider yourself very lucky if you bought an SSD last year. Since September 2016 we have been warning you about a possible price increase and nowadays the price of SSDs is at least a quarter more than we were used to. Which SSD should you purchase and what can you save on, especially now? You can read this in our test of no less than 69 sata SSDs.

Why did the price of the 500GB-SSD, which only cost 115 pounds / 130 euros last year, suddenly rise to about 150 pounds / 170 euros? This has everything to do with the switch to 3D NAND by multiple manufacturers. Two dimensional flash memory, or rather the production of it, has pretty much reached its limit, considering the reliability of it rapidly worsens when the production procedure becomes smaller. 3D NAND could potentially even be a lot cheaper than 2D NAND. Unfortunately the total production capacity has gone down because factories are being readied for the production of 3D NAND. All of this is happening while demand for flash memory significantly increases, in part due to the rising storage capacity in smartphones.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth Headset Review

Today we will be covering the Arctis 3 Wireless Headset from SteelSeries. Big shout out to SteelSeries for providing us with all the great headsets in the past. The one on hand today is from the Arctis line. We covered the Arctis 7 a while back and now we have the Arctis 3 version to show off. As you can expect, SteelSeries doesn’t fool around when it comes to their audio. I love that SteelSeries has a passion about providing us with the most enjoyable experience possible. If you are like me then you want nothing but the best from a headset. When you come in contact with crappy audio, it can truly ruin the feedback of whatever it is. I want clear highs and deep lows. If I am going to have the sound that close to my eardrum I want near perfection. Lets see if this headset can pass my approval like all the other Steelseries headset have in the past.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS

The Synology DS918+ is the successor to the DS916+ and features a new CPU, more RAM, a pair of M.2 slots, and trays with locks. Strangely enough, the older model seems to perform better in real-life scenarios; however, the DS918+ is fast enough to still meet the increasing demands of a home user.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

XPG EMIX I30 5.2 Surround In-Ear Gaming Headset Review

XPG may be a name you have not come across before, and even after a brief bit of research I could find little more than the existence of a couple of headsets, one of which being the XPG EMIX I30 Gaming Headset that was on my desk – until I noticed something on the back of the box… the headset is actually made by Adata, a name I’m sure a lot more of you are familiar with. Unfortunately the link from Adata’s website leads us to a registry landing page so the trail went cold.

So with very little provenance or history to go on, it’s time to just get stuck in and see what the wired ear-bud style headphones have in store for us.

Read full article @ Play3r

Zotac GT 1030 2 GB - Video Review

The budget GPU market has been neglected for years. A powerful low profile single slot card can be hard to find because of this. The release of the nVidia GT 1030, I believe, has changed that perception. Zotac has taken GT 1030 and whipped it into shape knowing that the market need a card just like this.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc