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Memory | Patriot Signature Line DDR4 SODIMM Memory Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Thursday, 13 December 2018
Patriot Signature Line DDR4 SODIMM Memory

Even though we spend most of our time looking at fancy and more frequently, flashy, memory kits designed for overclocking and maximum gaming performance, most systems out there don’t need and often can't use the extra abilities of these kits. With most systems locked to a maximum JEDEC speed in the 2133 to 2666 MHz range, kits that are built to hit 3000 or even 4000 MHz and above are simply wasted on a locked platform. While this may be blasphemous to some, most systems don’t have RGB and some people prefer not to have it. Can you imagine how distracting an office at work would be with dozens of machines lit up like a disco? When you don’t want or need all the bling and OC headroom, Patriot’s Signature Line of memory has you covered. Today we’ll be looking at a pair of SODIMM’s made for laptops and other portable or small form-factor systems.

Last updated on Thursday, 13 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Audio | Creative Sound Blaster K3+ External Mixer Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Creative Sound Blaster K3+

Streaming and content creation, in general, has really grown in popularity over the last few years. Whether its YouTube, Twitch or even Facebook Live. With how large the online community has really gotten; the world has never seemed smaller. But how can you set yourself apart from the millions of people doing the same thing you’re trying to do? One key way is audio. You can have the best quality, 4k content, but if you have bad audio quality, no one will watch your videos aside from your friends. Many people simply use the mic on their when cam or maybe upgrade to a USB mic like a Blue Snowball or Yeti. However, if you really want to get the best audio quality, you really want to use an XLR mic with an audio interface.

Last updated on Wednesday, 12 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Accessories | Cooler Master MasterAccessory MP750 XL Soft Mouse Pad Review

Posted by James Keir
on Tuesday, 11 December 2018
Cooler Master MP750

Mouse pads have gone from a simple pad used for mouse tracking to ones with dual surfaces, RGB lighting, and sizes that can cover your whole desk. Hot off the heels of the MP860, Cooler Master is bringing another mouse pad into the market with its new MP750. It features an extra thick RGB border that’s configurable via software and has smooth water-resistant surface. The MP750 is available in 3 different sizes: Medium ($34.99), Large ($44.99) and Extra-Large ($54.99) and for this review, we will be looking at the extra-large.

Last updated on Wednesday, 12 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Motherboards | MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC Motherboard Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Monday, 10 December 2018
MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC Motherboard

If you’ve been following MSI awhile, you’ll know awhile back they broke their motherboard line up into the Enthusiast, Professional and Arsenal series with each serving a distinct segment of the market. Starting with Intel’s latest chipset revamp, the Z390, MSI has reduced this mouthful down to a TLA, or Three Letter Acronym. The new lines are MEG for MSI Enthusiast Gaming, MAG for MSI Arsenal gaming and MPG for MSI Professional Gaming, the segment we’ll be looking at today. With a feature set that strikes a perfect balance between appearance and performance, MSI’s new MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC strikes fear into your digital enemies, but not your wallet.

Last updated on Monday, 10 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Motherboards | Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Motherboard Review

Posted by James Keir
on Wednesday, 05 December 2018
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro

Intel’s new Z390 was a bit of a surprise to most and is more of an update to the Z370 than an entirely new chipset. The Z390 chipset adds support up to 6 USB 3.1 gen 2 on the chip, which up until now would have to be included as a separate chip and added integrated WiFi 802.11ac support. In addition to these new features, it has also been designed to handle Intel’s 9th generation processors, which now tops out at 8 cores. With a new chipset comes motherboard refreshes and Gigabyte’s Aorus line is no different. We will be reviewing Gigabyte’s Aorus Pro which boasts the same stylish Aorus design with some new features such as a 12+1 phases digital VRM solution with DrMos, 2x copper PCB with an enlarged power plane, and M.2 thermal guard covers. The Aorus Pro lands itself in the middle of Aorus’s new Z390 lineup and has an MSRP of $180.

Last updated on Wednesday, 05 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Motherboards | ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero Wi-Fi Z390 Motherboard Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Tuesday, 04 December 2018
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero WiFi Z390 Motherboard

The Hero series has arguably been the go-to board for many each generation to get all the ROG Maximus goodies without the flagship prices of something like the Formula or Extreme boards. ROG only features like dedicated water cooling headers, pre-mounted I/O Shield, multi-zone Aura-Sync lighting with addressable headers, and one-click Ai-powered overclocking gives you everything an enthusiast gamer could need at a price that feels a little more mainstream. Let’s go see how it performs!

Last updated on Tuesday, 04 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Storage | Seagate SkyHawk Surveillance 10TB SATA 6.0Gbps Hard Drive Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Monday, 03 December 2018
Seagate SkyHawk Surveillance 10TB Hard Drive

With the ceaseless parade of the latest in flash-based storage technology in both the consumer and enterprise world, it would be easy to assume mechanical drives are nearly finished. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In mid-2016, Seagate reorganized its drive branding into 3 main segments under the new Guardian Series. Each branch contains drives targeted and optimized for specific use cases. The rebranded BarraCuda Compute family targets PCs and Gaming. The new IronWolf series features technologies specialized for RAID and NAS duties. The new SkyHawk family is built for write-intensive workloads common to Video Surveillance systems and this is the segment we’ll be checking out today.

 

Last updated on Monday, 03 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Audio | Tronsmart Element Blaze Bluetooth Speaker Review

Posted by James Keir
on Friday, 30 November 2018
Tronsmart Element Blaze

When spending time in front of a campfire or outside having a picnic, sometimes it’s nice to play a little music in the background. With the increased capacity of mobile devices, it’s extremely easy to store your entire music collection, but you are either stuck using a headset or using included subpar speakers when listening to it. This is where Tronsmart’s Element Blaze Portable speaker comes in. It is able to connect to your phone via Bluetooth and provide you with great sounds in a small footprint. With the Element Blaze’s 12 hours battery life and the fact that it is IPX56 water resistant, there’s very little places this speaker can’t go and should be ideal for any excursion you are planning.

Last updated on Monday, 03 December 2018 | Read More >>>

Storage | Intel SSD DC P4510 Series 2.0TB PCIe 2.5” SSD Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Thursday, 29 November 2018
Intel SSD DC P4510 Series 2.0TB PCIe 2.5” Datacenter SSD

Intel has been making SSD’s for more than ten years now, but the average consumer is probably only familiar with them from the more recent Optane based drives. On the Enterprise side of the world, Intel is regarded as the defacto standard for reliability and performance. Some of this has spilled over into the prosumer world a few years back with the Intel 750 series drives. Today we’ll be looking at Intel’s SSD DC P4510 series drive. Designed for the rapidly growing and evolving cloud architecture, the P4510 series provides higher capacity, low latency and scalable performance for continued innovation.

Last updated on Thursday, 29 November 2018 | Read More >>>

Computer Cases | MetallicGear NEO G MINI mITX Case Review

Posted by James Keir
on Wednesday, 28 November 2018
MetallicGear Neo-G Mini

Over the past few years, we have seen an emerging trend of people opting for mITX cases over larger cases like mid towers. This size factor typically appeals to people looking to build a media server or a mid-range workstation. Lately, we see that PC builders are making mITX builds for portability for events like Dreamhack or just having the challenge of seeing how much power they can cram into a tight space. Entering into the mITX space is MetallicGear with one of its debut cases the NEO G MINI which comes in a compact size of 355mm (H) x 190mm (W) X 375mm (D). Other stand out features include a vertical GPU mount with riser cable, tempered glass front and side panel with stylized silk-screening, and all steel chassis with sandblasted aluminum body. Despite these high-end features MetallicGear still manages to keep the NEO G MINI at an affordable MSRP of $80.

Last updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2018 | Read More >>>

Power Supplies | Enermax Platimax D.F. 1200W 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply Review

Posted by Damon Bailey
on Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Enermax Platimax D.F. 1200W 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply

Enermax has been making power supplies since the early 90’s so it’s really no surprise to see much of their lineup landing in the top levels of the 80+ efficiency range. It takes a lot of good engineering to maintain such an extremely high-efficiency rating under a heavy load. Here we find that Enermax has taken its flagship Platimax lineup and married to another of their technologies, the D.F.R. fans. The Dust Free Fans spin in reverse at startup to blow all the accumulated dust back off of the fan blades. Marry all of this to a fully modular platform and you have the new Platimax D.F. family of power supplies. Today we’ll be taking a look at the largest in the family, the 1200W Platimax D.F. Platinum.

Last updated on Tuesday, 27 November 2018 | Read More >>>

Storage | Crucial P1 1000GB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD Review

Posted by James Keir
on Thursday, 22 November 2018
Crucial P1 1000GB

Over the past few years, the popularity of M.2 drives has dramatically increased due to their small form factor, blazing speeds, and affordability. With the recent decline of prices of PCIe based SSDs, they are now making their way into many entry-level systems and not just enthusiast builds. Crucial’s new P1 line of NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD’s promises to brings both high speeds and ample storage suitable for any build. The P1 drive comes in 3 different configurations which range from 500GB to 2TB of storage with speeds up to 2000MB/s read and 1700MB/s write. With a starting MSRP of $109.99 choosing a PCIe based drive over a SATA SSD is now a much easier decision.

Last updated on Thursday, 22 November 2018 | Read More >>>

Computer Cases | AZZA Ragnarok 801 Dual System Case Review

Posted by Mike Holsapple
on Wednesday, 21 November 2018
AZZA Ragnarok 801 Dual system ATX ITX Case

More and more we are seeing case manufacturers design their cases to incorporate more than one system in 1 case, AZZA decided they wanted to jump on board this trend as well. You may ask yourself “Why would I want a PC case that can fit more than one system?” Well, if you are a streamer, you most likely would like one PC that would be your main gaming PC and one PC that would do all your heavy lifting and legwork like encoding, broadcasting, ETC. Maybe you’re a media buff that likes to have all your movies, pictures, etc. on one NAS (network attached storage) and you’ve run out of desk space for 2 separate PC towers so you build two pcs into one tower that can handle both of your tasks needed, without having 2 towers to place on a desk or walk around. Meet the Ragnarok 801 by AZZA, this full-size PC tower can fit two full systems. The main system can handle motherboards up to E-ATX and on the PSU shroud, there are mounting points for a smaller ITX system. We will take a look at the specs further down the review.

Last updated on Monday, 26 November 2018 | Read More >>>

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