Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

7 Reasons Why Microsoft Windows Is a Disaster
A beginner's guide to esports
ADATA XPG Gammix S10 M.2 NVMe SSD Review
AMD Intros the Wraith Prism CPU Cooler
AMD Raven Ridge Desktop APUs
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz with Vega 8 Graphics Review
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G Review
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G With Radeon Vega 8 Graphics Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G & Ryzen 3 2200G Raven Ridge APU Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz with Vega 11 Graphics Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G And Ryzen 3 2200G Review: Raven Ridge Desktop Debuts
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Mining Performance with NiceHash and XMR-STAK
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Review: Zen, Meet Vega
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G With Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics Review
AMD Ryzen R3 2200G & R5 2400G Raven Ridge APU Review
AMD Ryzen Raven Ridge Comes with a Limited PCIe Interface
AMD's Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G APUs reviewed
ANQ 4031 HDMI Switch (3×1) With Remote Control Review
ASUS ROG GL503 Review
Best Windows 10 Tablet in 2018
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hackers Memory Review
Dynasty Warriors 9 Review
EVGA launches SuperNOVA G1+ power supplies
How to use Shazam with Siri on HomePod to identify songs playing in the room
Intel Intros Core i3-8130U Dual-core Low-power Processor
Lenovo Legion Y520 Tower Review
Mac mini 2018: what we want to see
Mario, Sonic, and 5 More Free Retro Games for Your Smartphone
MyDigitalSSD SBX M.2 NVMe SSD Review (128GB/256GB/512GB)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 benchmarked
Samsung Ultra Small, Ultra Fast & Ultra Portable SSD T5 500GB Review
Tesoro Gram SE Spectrum Gaming Keyboard Review

7 Reasons Why Microsoft Windows Is a Disaster

Back in August 2017, I wrote a piece called Forget Linux: 10 Reasons You Should Stick With Windows. Indignant Linux users flooded the comments section. Some made valid rebuttals of my points, others accused me of being a blinkered Windows fan. In the interests of fairness and to prove Microsoft did not pay for last years article, despite the allegations lets take a look at the other side of the coin. Windows is far from perfect. Nay, Windows sucks (at times). Its a bloated mess thats confusing to navigate and prone to crash, right?

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

A beginner's guide to esports

Since the early days of video games, there's always been a competitive side. Whether the high scores spewed from arcade classics or the competitive ranking in modern shooters, players have always desired to rank themselves in relation to others in their category.

In recent years, the community around competitive gaming has blossomed, with multiplayer online games placing a bigger focus on player-versus-player combat. This has birthed a new age of competitive gaming known as eSports, which is becoming an increasingly popular topic in both the gaming and sports industries.

Read full article @ Windows Central

ADATA XPG Gammix S10 M.2 NVMe SSD Review

Last year, ADATA’s gaming branch, XPG, released their newest product line, the Gammix series, and within that, they released the XPG Gammix S10 M.2 NVMe SSD. This SSD is quite sleek and high-end looking, with its flashy red with black heatsink and blacked out PCB, but its performance doesn’t quite match its looks. Although one would think that because it comes with an added heatsink that it is one of the fastest hottest running SSDs out, the truth is actually the contrary. It features a Silicon Motion SM2260 controller and Micron’s first gen 32-layer 3D TLC NAND, which is the same hardware as the slowest NVMe SSD we have tested to date, the Intel 600P. It’s not a terribly bad thing though, it’s just not quite the beast one would be led to believe it is judging by appearance alone. It is, however, stated to deliver faster write performance than the 600P, so there is an improvement we look forward to seeing in today’s testing.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

AMD Intros the Wraith Prism CPU Cooler

AMD unveiled its new-generation Wraith Prism CPU cooler, which will soon be available for purchase separately, launched alongside some of the higher models of its Ryzen 2000-series "Pinnacle Ridge" processors. The Wraith Prism is essentially a Wraith Max with RGB LED lighting. The cooler features two RGB LED diffusers embedded into its shroud, an outer ring at the mouth of the intake, and an inner ring along the bore of the intake framing the fan. Y

Read full article @ techPowerUp

AMD Raven Ridge Desktop APUs

We can now share with you the full details of the *AMD Raven Ridge desktop APUs*! Check out the upcoming *Ryzen 5 2400G*and *Ryzen 3 2200G* APUs!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz with Vega 8 Graphics Review

AMD's Ryzen 3 2200G is the cheapest true quad-core CPU ever released. It also integrates Radeon Vega graphics with 512 shader cores and a modern video decode acceleration engine. Given its price, this has the potential to be the CPU for system builders on a budget, who also want their system to be able to handle light gaming.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G Review

We peek at the 99 USD four-core Ryzen 3 2200G, an integrated Radeon Vega based desktop APU (Raven Ridge) that is priced very competitively, yet comes with a 3.5 GHz base and 3.7 GHz boost clock. Not bad, eh? AMD has been going strong with their processors, and now increases their market validity by adding a series of processors that have built-in graphics capabilities, APUs. If you do not need a heavy duty graphics card and merely use your PC for desktop stuff and perhaps a mild game here and there, hey... AMD surely has got a strong offering for you starting today. There's no need to purchase a dedicated graphics card. That means even more value for money as you receive mainstream to fairly high-end quad-core desktop performance for attractive prices. Now, if you have not heard or learned about the Ryzen releases in 2017, you must have been living under a rock; no worries, let's recap and compare a little on what you guys can expect. We'll start at the 'entry-level' with Ryzen 3 and 5 processors series lining up with Intel's Core i3 series. The difference, of course, is that Intel offers the Core i3 series as a dual-core part, and only recently started adding an SMT/HT version configured as 2 cores and 4 threads. They did that as they noticed what was coming from AMD. In a bold move AMD today launches the Ryzen 3 and 5 G series, with that G for graphics.

AMD has already announced the two APUs, which by the way are compatible with existing B350 and X370 motherboard with merely a firmware update. The first two models, Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G, that AMD has released are the first CPUs with embedded Radeon Vega architecture graphics. There are other notable features to mention as well, The APUs now have the official default support of DDR4-2933 in dual-channel operation. And for AMD faster memory is important for two reasons, the first being it reacts better to CPU bound gaming and, secondly, system memory is an elementary link for AMD's APU to get the highest performance possible. For integrated graphics, the memory cannot be fast enough as that system memory is used.

Read full article @ Guru3D

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G With Radeon Vega 8 Graphics Review

The AMD Raven Ridge APU is finally here! We present to you our review of the *AMD Ryzen 3 2200G* APU, and its integrated *Radeon Vega 8 Graphics*!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G & Ryzen 3 2200G Raven Ridge APU Review

AMD has launched two new APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit) that marry Zen CPU architecture with Vega graphics. AMD Ryzen 5 2400G contains a Vega 11 graphics core with 11 Compute Units (hence the model code) and 704 Shaders. AMD Ryzen 3 2200G is the junior partner with Vega 8 graphics and 512 Shaders.

Read full article @ KitGuru

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz with Vega 11 Graphics Review

Today AMD released their new Ryzen G processors, which feature integrated graphics with the Vega architecture. These new processors use the AM4 socket, which means all motherboards that support Ryzen, will support Ryzen G, too. With a price of $170, the Ryzen 5 2400G is also priced reasonably when looking at platform cost, because you don't have to buy a separate graphics card at inflated prices.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G Review

Ryzen CPU grunt, Vega GPU prowess in one chip. AMD introduced a whole host of Ryzen-based CPUs in 2017. These offered an impressive bang for your buck, so much so that Intel upped its own mainstream Core game by introducing 8th Gen chips imbued with more cores and threads than ever before. Ryzen was, and is, a good thing for the PC market.

Though arguably offering better value than Intel across a broad price spectrum, initial stability concerns and, for some, a lack of built-in graphics took some shine away from desktop Ryzen. That and potentially sub-par gaming performance with a high-end discrete GPU in situ.

The gaming observations have largely been addressed in subsequent updates, platform stability has become better, so fixing the third part of the jigsaw, announced at CES, AMD is officially introducing desktop Ryzen CPUs with baked-in Vega graphics. The two vanguard chips, previously known as Raven Ridge, are Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G, priced at $169 and $99, respectively. As is usual, let's roll out the high-level specification table and see what's what.

Read full article @ Hexus

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G And Ryzen 3 2200G Review: Raven Ridge Desktop Debuts

AMD continues its assault on the desktop PC market with a pair of new, affordable APUs today, the Raven Ridge-based Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G. AMD has been talking about its plans to mate the Zen CPU and Vega GPU microarchitectures for quite some time and has revealed a number of details regarding these new hybrid chips over the last few months.

Today though, we can give you the full scoop. We have had Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G APUs in house for a few days now and have put them through their paces with an array of benchmarks...

Read full article @ HotHardware

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Mining Performance with NiceHash and XMR-STAK

Today we are going to knock one question out about the new Raven Ridge processor and that would be how does this platform mine? Cryptocurrency is huge right now and many are hoping that the new AMD Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G will hit it out of the park for mining. Read on to find out!

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Review

They're here, Vega based desktop APUs (Raven Ridge) from AMD, the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G and today we'll review the latter one in this particular article. AMD has been going strong with their processors, and now increases their market validity by adding a series of processors that have built-in graphics capabilities, APUs. If you do not need a heavy duty graphics card and use your PC merely for desktop stuff and perhaps a mild game here and there, hey ... AMD surely has got a strong offering for you starting today. There's no need to purchase a dedicated graphics card. That means even more value for money as you receive mainstream to fairly high-end quad-core desktop performance for attractive prices. Now, if you have not heard or learned about the Ryzen releases in 2017, you must have been living under a rock, no worries, let's recap and compare a little on what you guys can expect. We'll start 'entry-level' with Ryzen 3 and 5 processors series lining up with Intel's Core i3 series. The difference, of course, is that Intel offers the Core i3 series as a dual-core part, and only recently started adding an SMT/HT version configured as 2 cores and 4 threads. They did that as they noticed what was coming from AMD. In a bold move AMD today launches Ryzen 3 and 5 G series, with that G for graphics.

AMD has already announced the two APUs, which by the way are compatible with existing B350 and X370 motherboard with merely a firmware update. The first two models Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G that AMD outs are the first CPUs with embedded Radeon Vega architecture graphics. There are other notable features to mention as well, The APUs now have the official default support of DDR4-2933 in dual-channel operation. And for AMD faster memory is important for two reasons, the first being it reacts better to CPU bound gaming, and secondly, system memory is an elementary link for AMD's APU to get the highest performance possible. For integrated graphics, the memory cannot be fast enough as that system memory is used.

Read full article @ Guru3D

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Review: Zen, Meet Vega

AMD designed its new Ryzen processors with Vega graphics to play AAA games at 1080p with low-quality settings. Does the flagship Ryzen 5 2400G deliver on those promises?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G With Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics Review

The AMD Raven Ridge APU is finally here! We present to you our review of the *AMD Ryzen 5 2400G APU*, and its integrated *Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics*!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

AMD Ryzen R3 2200G & R5 2400G Raven Ridge APU Review

Since its launch, AMD's Ryzen CPU has been making waves in the CPU market. With Ryzen, AMD's performance has become relevant once again and the CPUs are able to compete with their Intel counterpart. The next step in updating AMD's portfolio is to release an updated APU.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

AMD Ryzen Raven Ridge Comes with a Limited PCIe Interface

AMD today launched its first desktop Ryzen "Raven Ridge" APUs that combine quad-core "Zen" CPUs with "Vega" based integrated graphics solutions. One of its key specifications that caught our eye is its PCI-Express interface. Apparently, these chips feature just 8 PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes for discrete graphics, besides 4 lanes dedicated as the chipset-bus, and 4 other lanes driving a 32 Gbps M.2 NVMe slot. What this means for the end-users, is that any discrete graphics cards plugged into the PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot will run at half the bandwidth - PCI-Express 3.0 x8.

Our various PCI-Express scaling articles, which we regularly redo with the latest high-end GPUs, should tell you that the performance loss between gen 3.0 x16 and gen 3.0 x8 is negligible. This, however, becomes a problem for the small minority of users who combine these processors with AMD X370 chipset motherboards. The second x16 slot (which draws its PCIe lanes by segmenting it from the first x16 slot) won't work, and without at least x8 bandwidth, there's no possibility of NVIDIA SLI functioning, even on X370 motherboards that have SLI certification.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

AMD's Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G APUs reviewed

Morning, folks. Today is the day when we can finally share performance details for the desktop versions of AMD's Ryzen processors with Radeon Vega graphics, or Ryzen APUs for short. AMD isn't using the term "accelerated processing unit" to refer to these chips any longer, but it's a whole lot easier to call them APUs than it is to type out "Ryzen processor with Radeon Vega graphics" every time we want to refer to the family of chips. Naming conventions aside, what matters most is that AMD finally has a competitive CPU core that it can fuse with its muscular graphics processors, and it's used those resources to form a most exciting pair of chips for entry-level gaming builds, small-form-factor game boxes, and HTPCs.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

ANQ 4031 HDMI Switch (3×1) With Remote Control Review

Today well be taking a quick look at theANQ 4031 HDMI Switch with 3 HDMI input plus remote control.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

ASUS ROG GL503 Review

This gaming laptop offers high-performance at a really attractive price.

Choosing a gaming laptop is hard enough but if you're looking for something in the lower price brackets that still offers top-level performance, it can get even tougher. But there are always those that stand out.

ASUS and its Republic of Gamers house of all things fun is one of those that knows how to make a great gaming laptop that doesn't require you to take out a second mortgage. The GL503 is one of the latest and while it doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel, it does what matters most: provide a stellar gaming experience.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Best Windows 10 Tablet in 2018

If you're in the market for a new tablet but aren't sure which one to buy, you really can't go wrong with the new Microsoft Surface Pro (2017), a true 2-in-1 hybrid tablet that feels like a tablet most of the time, with the added bonus of becoming a laptop when you need it. Featuring a premium magnesium body, and a gorgeous 12.1-inch screen, you definitely won't regret buying one of these.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hackers Memory Review

20 years is a long time to play runner up. Digimon began life in 1997 as a Tamagotchi successor before transforming into a bald-faced Pokémon imitation, but it’s never come close to matching the popularity or cultural cachet of either franchise.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Dynasty Warriors 9 Review

Dynasty Warriors 9 marks the series' first steps out into the open world, and while there's a lot of ground to explore and officers to defeat, can't quite escape the established conventions of being a Dynasty Warriors title.

Read full article @ Wccftech

EVGA launches SuperNOVA G1+ power supplies

Redesigned with cleaner internal layout, shorter length, greater stability, and quieter fan. The EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ is a fully modular power supply range with 80+ GOLD efficiency rating. Compared to its predecessor, the new G1+ utilises "a cleaner internal layout to increase airflow." It also offers a Variable Resistor module (to increase voltage stability), two DC to DC modules for more efficient power switching on all models, a full suite of power supply protections, and an EVGA 10 year warranty.

Read full article @ Hexus

How to use Shazam with Siri on HomePod to identify songs playing in the room

HomePods strand of Siri has its limitations but its music features are pretty robust. You can actually use the Shazam song identification features on HomePod, you just need to know the right request phrase for Siri. The HomePod uses its microphones to listen to the environment and Shazam will try to find a match for the song. You can then get the HomePod to play the song straight from Apple Music.

Read full article @ 9to5Mac

Intel Intros Core i3-8130U Dual-core Low-power Processor

Intel today introduced the Core i3-8130U dual-core (2-core/4-thread) ultra low-power processor for thin and light notebooks, and 2-in-1 convertibles. Based on the 14 nm "Kaby Lake-U" silicon, the chip features a TDP of just 15W, making it ideal for all-day power devices. It is clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 3.40 GHz Turbo Boost frequency, and packs 4 MB of L3 cache. In its TDP-down mode, the CPU idles at 800 MHz, lowering the TDP to 10W. Its dual-channel DDR4 memory controller supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-2400 or LPDDR3-2133 memory. On the display side of things are the UHD Graphics 620 iGPU with clock speed ranging between 300 MHz and 1.00 GHz, 24 execution units, and hardware-acceleration for H.265/HEVC with 10bpc color.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Lenovo Legion Y520 Tower Review

A smaller case and lesser hardware keep the Legion Y520T's price down.

The Legion Y520 Tower (Y520T) is the entry-level model of Lenovo's Legion gaming line of pre-built PCs — I also reviewed the Y720T and the Y920T — aimed to cut the price down significantly while also delivering a solid gaming experience. Let's take a look at how it all comes together, and how it compares not only to its larger siblings, but to some other popular pre-built PCs on the market.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Mac mini 2018: what we want to see

Everything we know so far about the Mac mini 2018 release date, price and specifications, and what we want to see from the new device.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

Mario, Sonic, and 5 More Free Retro Games for Your Smartphone

How often do you remember a certain classic game and think to yourself those were the days? With all the variety of new games that you can play on your smartphone today, theres something special about finding one that takes you back to the past. If you want a proper nostalgia trip to, say, the 80s or 90s, you might want to try retro emulation. It allows you to play games from nearly any video game system on your Android device or PC.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

MyDigitalSSD SBX M.2 NVMe SSD Review (128GB/256GB/512GB)

The MyDigitalSSD SBX is the new entry-level NVMe SSD on the block. It features Phison’s new E8 NVMe controller and Toshiba’s BiCS TLC NAND. This combination enables the SBX to break free from the SATA interface and deliver some rather impressive performance, as to be expected of a PCIe device, but most importantly, it comes to market with prices that are comparable to SATA, even cheaper than some of the still in channel enthusiast class models! With performance three times greater than SATA at its worst and prices that may allow it to take reign over the market, we just couldn’t wait to get this drive in our hands. Now that we do, its time for you to read on to see if it could be your next purchase.

Read full article @ The SSD Review

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 benchmarked

SoC which will power Samsung Galaxy S9 phones put through 12 performance tests. With MWC a fortnight away there's still quite some time before we get to see the first smart devices powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 launch. By all accounts this is a very powerful mobile application processor, with headline official claims of it being 25 per cent faster at CPU operations and 30 per cent faster at GPU operations than the SD835. There are other significant improvements too, such as the X20 modem - boosting LTE and Wi-Fi communications speeds. It is expected that the Snapdragon 845 will be powering many regional variants of the Samsung Galaxy S9, and a new generation of Always Connected PCs later in the year. Incidentally this 10nm SoC is manufactured by Samsung.

Read full article @ Hexus

Samsung Ultra Small, Ultra Fast & Ultra Portable SSD T5 500GB Review

Despite their performance capabilities, portable SSDs are not complicated products. They need to have good NAND, housing that can withstand the occasional shock, and generally be as reliable as possible. The audience Samsung would cater its T5 SSDs to are those who want a lot of super-fast storage on-the-go in a great form-factor. The fact that the drive looks good may help, too.

Speaking of looks, the T5 isn’t flashy, but that’s a good thing. It has rounded corners at the top and bottom, which makes it nice to hold in your hand – not that it will take up much space there. The drive is exclusively USB Type-C, although two cables are included with Type-A or Type-C opposite ends. Because the drive is so low-power, the USB connection provides more than enough juice for this drive.

Read full article @ TechGage

Tesoro Gram SE Spectrum Gaming Keyboard Review

About a year and a half about we took a look at Tesoro's Gram Spectrum mechanical gaming keyboard.  This keyboard was extremely solid, offered mechanical key switches, and a slim keycap design.  The new Gram SE Spectrum from Tesoro features Tesoro's new optical switches, the same ones we saw on the Excalibur SE Spectrum.  These switches use infra-red technology, which is twice as fast as traditional mechanical switches and offers advanced dust and spill resistance.  Also since these switches do not have metal components, like traditional mechanical switches, there is no regular wear and tear from constant contact, which allows for a longer switch lifespan.  Are you looking for a faster response than your mechanical keyboard to enhance your gaming skills?  The Tesoro Gram SE Spectrum might be for you!  Let's take a look...

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org