Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

$400 12-core Threadripper: But Is It Worth It?
ASRock B450M Pro4 Motherboard Review
ASUS ROG Maximus X Formula Motherboard Review
Asustor AS4004T 10 Gigabit NAS Review
Blue Yeti Nano Review
Cougar Conquer Essence Mini Tower Case Review
Does StoreMI Bring AMD on Par with Intel Optane Memory Caching?
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review
Dream Machines DM1 FPS Mouse Review
Eve Room 2 Review
Gamescom 2018 report with over 200 gamescom pictures
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate Review
Mushkin Source 500 GB Review
Samsung 1TB Portable SSD X5 Review
Samsung Portable SSD X5 1TB Review
Samsung Portable SSD X5 Review
Samsung Portable SSD X5 Review
Samsung X5 Portable SSD Review
Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD Review
Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD Review
Seasonic FOCUS PLUS Platinum 650W PSU Review
Tighter NVIDIA GeForce vs. AMD Radeon Linux Gaming Battle
Toshiba XG6 Review

$400 12-core Threadripper: But Is It Worth It?

With AMD's 2nd generation Threadripper out in the wild, the company has decided to slash prices of first gen parts. So far only the 32-core 2990WX and 16-core 2950X have been unleashed, while the 12 and 24-core versions will arrive in about two more months.

In the meantime, AMD quietly reduced the Threadripper 1920X's SEP, short for "Suggested E-tailer Price," down from its launch price of $800 to just $400. On paper, for $400 a 12-core/24-thread high-end desktop processor is an incredible buy. To help put this into perspective, you can expect to pay roughly the same amount for Intel’s Core i7-7800X, which has half as many cores. Meanwhile, Intel’s 10-core 7900X still costs $1000, so at least when compared to Intel high-end desktop offerings the 1920X is an insane bargain.

Read full article @ TechSpot

ASRock B450M Pro4 Motherboard Review

Today we will present ASRock B450M Pro4 so a cheaper gaming motherboard which offers more than we could expect. Recently small motherboards are becoming more popular in gaming computers because they offer about as much to a typical gamer as full ATX form factor motherboards.

I won’t tell you much more right now. For sure it’s worth the time to check the B450M Pro4 motherboard so after a quick look at the key features let’s move to the more detailed specification.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

ASUS ROG Maximus X Formula Motherboard Review

With the recent announcements of second generation threadripper CPUs and the NVIDIA 20-Series GPUs it is easy to lose track of what is currently available on the market. The Intel Coffee Lake Core 8000 series processors were released late in 2017 and from my perspective the market was slow to follow. 300 series montherboards were available at launch however; many custom motherboards were not released until several months later.

In this review I’ll be going over the ASUS ROG Maximus X Formula motherboard. This board is built on the Intel Z370 chipset supporting LGA 1151 Coffee Lake processors. While this processor shares the same socket as the LGA 1151 Kaby Lake they are not cross compatible. Being that this is a ROG (Republic of Gamers) motherboard is also comes with a rather long list of additional features designed to transform a normal gaming motherboard into a luxury product that checks all the boxes.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Asustor AS4004T 10 Gigabit NAS Review

Slowly but steadily Multi Gig Ethernet is arriving into the consumer domain. ASUSTOR has released a new NAS with 10 Gigabit Ethernet for the consumer market. Armed with a dual-core processor the AS4004T NAS is to set a record or two in the consumer and SOHO NAS domain alright. Yeah, they released a NAS that features a whopping 10Gbps Ethernet jack as four drive bays, and do so at a very interesting price point. The new AS4004T (there also is a two-bay version AS4002T) features one 10GbE network port and two 1GbE ports. Next, to the lovely ADM software suite, ASUSTOR also upgraded the drive caddies, now in a tool-less design. The price for this NAS series is a proper one as it sits under $400, we expect final pricing to settle at $359 / € 379,-for the four-bay unit. That is unprecedented price wise for anything offering 10Gbps Ethernet.

Obviously, they had to save on some features in order to present a price competitive product, ergo ASUSTOR dropped the multimedia features, there is no HDMI output. However, this is a NAS back to its roots, a proper file streaming server with an excellent application suite. To further reduce costs the AS4004T makes use of a dual-core Marvell Armada 7020 processor running at 1.6 GHz. Next, to that, it has been paired with 2GB dual-channel memory (not expandable) and yes, it has a nearly exhaustive plethora of ASUSTOR features and APPs making this a small server really. The four in that product name means we'll be testing the 4-bay version of this dual-core processor based NAS.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

Blue Yeti Nano Review

Blue's latest microphone -- the Yeti Nano -- is a miniaturized version of the company's popular Yeti USB mic. AppleInsider has spent the last couple weeks testing it out ahead of the launch and we are very pleased with this stout recorder.

Blue has a reputation in the world of podcasts, streamers, and gamers. The company's products are solidly built, with exceptional sound quality that still comes in at entirely accessible price points. Yeti Nano is a shrunken down version of the company's flagship Yeti, that keeps the build and sound quality, but trades in the bulky body.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Cougar Conquer Essence Mini Tower Case Review

I love open design cases. Cases like Core P1-3-5-7 (Thermaltake) and Paean (Raijintek) offer a lot of customizable options for anyone who is trying to put together a custom rig. Unfortunately there aren't many manufacturers out there who has open style cases. Our friends at Cougar has just released a smaller version of their flagship Conquer case, Conquer Essence.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Does StoreMI Bring AMD on Par with Intel Optane Memory Caching?

Back in April of this year we first took a look at the storage performance of the then-new X470 chipset for the 2nd generation of Ryzen processors. Allyn dove into NVMe RAID performance and also a new offering called StoreMI. Based on a software tiered storage solution from Enmotus, StoreMI was a way for AMD to offer storage features and capabilities matching or exceeding that of Intel’s mainstream consumer platforms without the need for extensive in-house development.

Allyn described the technology well:
AMD has also launched their answer to Intel RST caching. StoreMI is actually a more flexible solution that offers some unique advantages over Intel. Instead of copying a section of HDD data to the SSD cache, StoreMI combines the total available storage space of both the HDD and SSD, and is able to seamlessly shuffle the more active data blocks to the SSD. StoreMI also offers more cache capacity than Intel - up to 512 256GB SSD caches are possible (60GB limit on Intel). Lastly, the user can opt to donate 2GB of RAM as an additional caching layer.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review

Dragon Warrior, as the Dragon Quest series was once known in the States, was my very first introduction to the JRPG genre. This simple tale of a single hero venturing out into a quest to save the world from the Dragonlord was something that forever shaped my impressionable taste in NES games for years to come. As I grew up, so too did the adventures. These quests quickly expanded to feature a full party of like-minded adventurers and so too did my small circle of friends as I grew of age. When I was at the peak of my junior high days, Dragon Quest VII was there to keep me company when I fell sick for a week. Then, shortly before I left my home state of Colorado and headed out East, I played dozens of hours of Dragon Quest IX with friends at the local game store and perfected my fan waving skills while everyone else went with swords and spears. Needless to say, it’s been a series that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Now, just after my thirty-first birthday, a new chapter of my life has begun anew and so too has the first new Dragon Quest title to be translated into English in so many years: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Dream Machines DM1 FPS Mouse Review

It's the latest mouse from Dream Machines - but is it worth the £50 asking price? Here at KitGuru, we have taken a keen interest in the mice produced by Dream Machines. First we saw the DM1 Pro in 2016, and followed that with a look at the DM1 Pro S in February of this year. Today, we assess the DM1 FPS. It uses the same overall design as its predecessors but sports an updated sensor, a new ultra-flexible cable, as well as Huano switches instead of the more standard Omron switches. Priced at €55 (about £50), is this new mouse worth the money?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Eve Room 2 Review

Eve Room was one of the first HomeKit products to hit the market. Now years later, Eve Systems is back with the updated version, the aptly named Eve Room 2.

There are lots of new aspects to the Room 2 over the original. It looks more modern, and is less than a quarter of the original size, replacing the white plastic with a svelte aluminum frame.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Gamescom 2018 report with over 200 gamescom pictures

From August 21 to 25, 2018 one of the most important gaming fairs in Europe took place in Cologne, Germany. Of course we visited gamescom again and published this gamescom 2018 report on OCinside.de with more than 200 gamescom pictures and videos on several pages of current gaming hardware, current games, gaming seats, cosplayers, VR glasses and even without DCMM some casemods. You should not miss this!

Read full article @ OCInside.de

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate Review

Monster Hunter is no longer a niche franchise. Handheld fans have been enjoying more and more games and there’s been a steady increase in popularity for years, but the mainstream breakthrough we saw from Monster Hunter World was entirely unprecedented. It’s for exactly that reason, why you can feel comfortable categorising the kinds of players that will be looking into Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.

The first kind will be the veteran Monster Hunter player. You’ve likely already played Monster Hunter Generations on 3DS and earlier games in the series, and all you need to know about Generations Ultimate is if it plays well and is worth jumping into if you’ve already gone through Generations.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Mushkin Source 500 GB Review

With just 16 cents per GB, or $81 for the tested 500 GB version, the Mushkin Source is among the most affordable SSDs on the market. It is a DRAM-less design, which means some compromises have to be expected in terms of performance. Our review of the Mushkin Source 500 GB looks exactly into that.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Samsung 1TB Portable SSD X5 Review

Samsung's 1TB Portable SSD X5 brings the speed of the Thunderbolt 3 interface and the NVMe protocol to a speedy external SSD. Leading edge technology almost always comes at a premium, and the latest storage products are no exception. Samsung's attractive Portable SSD X5 builds on the company's reputation for creating some of the fastest and classiest SSD storage solutions on the market, but it is pricey: The Portable SSD X5 is easily three times more expensive per gigabyte than most portable USB SSDs.

The Portable X5 does bring a lot to the table, though. Samsung says the drive has supercar design influences and the performance to match. Samsung’s Portable SSD X5 is the company's first NVMe-based portable SSD with the Thunderbolt 3 interface. The interface enables high-end performance that stretches up to a blistering 2.8/2.3 GB/s of read/write throughput.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Samsung Portable SSD X5 1TB Review

Samsung has been in the portable SSD business for a good while now. They released their T1 back in 2015, with the T3 and T5 coming in at a yearly cadence. Keeping with tradition, today we see the release of a new model on a new interface - Samsungs new Portable SSD X5:

(970 EVO included for scale)
While the T branded predecessors were USB 3.0 and 3.1 (Gen1 - limited to 5Gbps), Samsung has now jumped onto the Thunderbolt 3 bandwagon, taking a firmware-tweaked (for encryption) 970 EVO and placing it behind an Intel Alpine Ridge DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 controller.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Samsung Portable SSD X5 Review

Samsung is launching their first Thunderbolt 3 SSD, the Portable SSD X5, today. It places an OEM version of their 970 EVO NVMe SSD behind an Alpine Ridge controller in a stylish bus-powered magnesium-heavy enclosure. Claimed performance numbers are reads up to 2800 MBps and writes up to 2300 MBps. How does the X5 stack up in our direct-attached storage evaluation? Read on to find out.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Samsung Portable SSD X5 Review

Samsung is entering the Thunderbolt 3 market today by unveiling their first-ever NVMe-based portable solid state drive (SSD) the Samsung Portable SSD X5. The X5 series features speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s read and 2,300 MB/s write, making it an ideal portable storage device for content creators, enthusiasts or anyone that wants access to their files quickly while on the go. Read on to see how this drives performs when we run half a dozen different benchmarks on the 1TB model.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Samsung X5 Portable SSD Review

Samsung claims the Samsung X5 is capable of read and write speeds of 2800MB/s and 2300MB/s respectively; if those ring true in our testing, this will be the single-fastest external drive we've seen, without question. To achieve those speeds, Samsung have used an M.2 NVMe drive featuring the latest 3-bit MLC V-NAND, paired with a high-speed controller and their TurboWrite technology.

Read full article @ Vortez

Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD Review

Samsung has been a leader in the solid state storage market for a number of years. Whether you were looking for affordable SATA-based offerings or high-performance NVMe gumsticks, Samsung usually has an answer. And we’re not just talking about internal drives either; Samsung has also released a number of excellent external storage devices, like the T3 and last year’s T5, for example. What Samsung hasn’t had was an ultra-high speed external solid state device that shed the limitations of legacy interfaces – until today, that is. Samsung’s latest storage product, the X5 Thunderbolt Portable SSD, is a durable, attractive, external device packing an NVMe solid state drive and burly Thunderbolt 3 interface...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD Review

Introduction If Samsung isn't in a market, is there really a market at all? Ultra-High-Speed portable SSDs over Thunderbolt 3 has been a niche market for close to a year now. The devices we've tested from this category all show impressive performance but you need a powerful computer with high-speed...

The drives we've seen all come from smaller companies that took the leap early. We're glad they did, but the limited number of products made it clear that the user base for such products wasn't there, yet. Even today, Thunderbolt 3 ships on less than half of all PCs sold today. It's a rich man's technology, available on premium motherboards and "creator" - type notebooks that often ship with the highest binned processors, ample system memory, high-resolution displays, and premium storage. There is a market for ultra-high-speed Thunderbolt 3 storage. Content creators have begged for NVMe-based portable devices to transport high-resolution content with massive data sets. When time is money, a 6x performance increase adds up quickly.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Seasonic FOCUS PLUS Platinum 650W PSU Review

Seasonic is back again today with another of its mid-tier computer power supplies, this time the Focus Plus is Platinum rated, which seems to be exceptionally good for a "mid-tier" product. It has a small profile, is fully modular, and carries on the Seasonic tradition of quiet quality at a very affordable $100 price, all with a 10 year warranty.

In the power supply realm, when consumers think of quiet and efficient power supplies one of the first companies that comes to mind is Seasonic. Today, we are having a look at a brand new Seasonic unit that is part of their new FOCUS PLUS Platinum lineup. In this review, we will specifically be looking at the 650W model (SSR-650PX) variously listed as the Focus+ Platinum 650W, Focus+ Platinum 650, Focus Plus 650 Platinum, FOCUS Plus 650 Platinum, FOCUS PLUS Platinum 650W, etc.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Tighter NVIDIA GeForce vs. AMD Radeon Linux Gaming Battle

Last week NVIDIA released the 396.54 driver that has a significant performance fix for OpenGL/Vulkan Linux performance due to a resource leak regression introduced at the start of the 390 driver series. With that updated driver (also as of yesterday back-ported to 390.87 too), there is a measurable boost in performance after running a few games on NVIDIA Linux systems. But at the same time, the Mesa 18.3-dev open-source graphics driver stack with RadeonSI/RADV continues improving on the open-source AMD front. Here is a fresh look at how the latest AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards compare using these latest drivers.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Toshiba XG6 Review

Developments in the field of SSDs have suddenly gone very fast. Both Samsung and WD only introduced their first NVMe SSDs with 64-layer flash memory at the beginning of this year, and a few weeks ago Toshiba surprised everyone by announcing another SSD with the next generation 3D NAND. Today, exclusively on Hardware.Info, we are presenting the very first review (worldwide) of the Toshiba XG6, an OEM SSD that gives us a taste of the product launches we can expect later this year.

Flash memory manufacturers were involved in a battle, just like with DRAM and for example processors, to make the NAND as small as possible. The arrival of 3D NAND meant a radical turnaround: instead of making the memory cells smaller and smaller, which is associated with disadvantages for speed and reliability, attempts have since been made to stack them as high as possible. So from a race to the smallest production process, we went to a race to the highest number of layers.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info