Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

4K Gaming PC - July 2018
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Review
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Review
ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Motherboard Review
ASUS TUF X470-Plus Gaming Motherboard Review
Cooler Master MasterAir G100M RGB UFO Cooler Review with two videos
GeChic On-Lap 1305H Portable Monitor Review
GIGABYTE AORUS K7 Review
HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Review
Kingston UV500 SATA SSD Review
Mistel MD600 Barocco RGB Keyboard Review
Super Flower Leadex II Gold 1000w Power Supply Review
The Best Sports Video Game of All Time
The Crew 2 Review
Wooting One Review

4K Gaming PC - July 2018

4K monitors are getting cheaper and cheaper, while their sharpness can't be matched by normal displays. Graphics cards have to render four times as many pixels to drive a 4K display compared to a 'normal' Full HD panel, while the game textures are only getting more detailed. In short: you need real horse power to game in 4K.

A fast processor and especially a graphics card is a must. However, the rest of the configuration needs to be balanced as well. Since many gamers prefer to overclock their PC to improve performance, it is important to choose a motherboard that is suitable for this.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Review

Recently we published our AMD Ryzen 2 review. At the time of writing that review, AMD had not sent us perhaps the most interesting new CPU yet, the Ryzen 5 2600, which you can already buy for 170 pounds. However, we were able to borrow it and test it as soon as possible.

The Ryzen 5 2600 is the little brother of the 2600X that we already discussed last time. Just like that processor, it's a 6-core CPU with all the improvements of the Ryzen 2 generation, such as the 12nm production process and the cache's much tighter response times. Out-of-the-box, the 2600 is set to a 200 MHz lower clock speed than the 2600X, but since all Ryzens have an unlocked multiplier, you can just overclock it. You will soon recover those few hundreds of megahertz.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Review

An exceptional gaming and mid-tier workstation processor.

I like to think of the AMD Ryzen 5 as the ideal middle ground for most consumers. It's unlikely you'll need more performance than what's included unless you plan on doing some more demanding tasks and gaming, but for most consumers, it's more than enough. The Core i5 series held the crown for too long and now the second generation 2600 from AMD aims to tackle its competitor and steam ahead with some killer improvements.

Read full article @ Windows Central

ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Motherboard Review

Today we are taking a look at ASRocks most advanced AMD X399 motherboard for Ryzen Threadripper, the Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming. As its name suggests, it is a motherboard strongly targeted towards demanding gamers, with impressive specifications and a long list of features. 

There are only very few motherboards currently available for Ryzen Threadripper processors. ASRock is the company with most AMD X399 motherboards and they only have three available. Still, ASRock took a more daring approach with their designs and also released the one and only mATX motherboard for Ryzen Threadripper. In this review we will be having a look at their currently best AMD X399 motherboard, the Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming.

The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming, as the name suggests, is a motherboard that is being marketed towards advanced gamers. Although the Ryzen Threadripper (currently) is not an appealing processor for casual gaming, when a gamer also wants to be concurrently downloading, chatting, and transcoding a video in the background while streaming a game online, the many cores of the Threadripper start making sense. The X399 Professional Gaming is ASRock's most featured-packed motherboard, with a very impressive list of specifications. However, with a price tag of $440, the X399 Professional Gaming also is one of the most expensive Ryzen Threadripper motherboards available. We will be seeing if that cost is justified in this review.

Read full article @ Anandtech

ASUS TUF X470-Plus Gaming Motherboard Review

Back when AMD released the 990FX chipset, the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX was one of the best boards you could get on that particular chipsets. Since then, the TUF series has evolved into the TUF series we see today and dropped the Sabertooth branding. But that doesn’t mean the quality has dropped, does it? The TUF series boards are still designed with military-grade TUF components such as TUF MOSFETs, Chokes, and Caps. In addition, we now get the benefit of the TUF Gaming Alliance, a partnership between several reputable companies such as Ballistix, Cooler Master, Corsair, G. Skill, In Win and Thermaltake. These companies are also producing TUF branded components and cases. With the TUF Gaming Alliance, you can design and build a fully TUF branded PC. Now, that’s all well and good, but aesthetics aren’t everything. In the end, its all about performance.

The X470 TUF-Plus motherboard sports the AM4 socket and supports second-generation Ryzen processors and seventh generation Athlon processors When the first generation of Ryzen processors launched, they were a massive upgrade from their previous Piledriver architecture. However, the first generation wasn’t without its faults. Any early adopter will remember the memory issues we all suffered, as well as its subpar overclocking capabilities. Now, with the second generation here, we’ll see if these issues were addressed or not. Using AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700, we put the X470 TUF-Plus through our suite of benchmarks.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Cooler Master MasterAir G100M RGB UFO Cooler Review with two videos

Unlike the recently tested MA410P, MA610P and MA620P tower coolers, the small round Cooler Master G100M UFO cooler is more for the small space requirement in Micro ATX or Mini ITX enclosures, without sacrificing an optical highlight. We test whether the cooling performance is still satisfactory and also have the 360 degree view, a new video with sound and yet another video with all the RGB effects in our OCinside YouTube channel.

Read full article @ OCInside.de

GeChic On-Lap 1305H Portable Monitor Review

This GeChic portable monitor costs less than £300 - but is it any good? If you miss the benefits of your multi-monitor desktop when travelling, then a portable monitor could be the perfect companion to your laptop. With a variety of products available designed to offer similar functionality and a high level of portability, GeChic brings the On-Lap 1305H monitor to the table. The panel itself looks very good on paper, but the connectivity does appear to be quite basic thanks to the standard HDMI and USB connectors. With most modern laptops leaning toward the USB Type-C/Thunderbolt interface, has the On-Lap 1305H arrived too late or does it still hold some promise for daily usability?

Read full article @ Kitguru

GIGABYTE AORUS K7 Review

n 2018 the market is not short on great mechanical keyboards under the £100 price point; especially with companies like Corsair, Logitech, FNATIC and Cooler Master having strong contenders. The AORUS K7 will have to do a great job to set itself apart from the pack, and it does make a good first move. Swaying away from plastic for the top fascia, the K7 offers a metal one which looks and feels quite premium. Things like the highly adjustable feet stands, and on-the-fly controls do also help its push to differentiate itself.

The AORUS K7, however, strives to do one main task above all else and that is to provide a great gaming performance. It starts off strong as it utilises genuine Cherry MX reds which offer a responsive and quick experience thanks to the short 2mm actuation point and 45g actuation force. The K7 also makes use of GIGABYTE’s matrix key-switch design that enables it to provide anti-ghosting across all areas of the keyboard. N-key rollover is another strong addition that K7 posses as well as media controls and controls for the RGB illumination.

Read full article @ Vortez

HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Review

Last fall, Microsoft launched the Windows Mixed Reality (MR) Portal, and a handful of hardware partners released headsets for Microsoft’s immersive computing platform. But like other Windows MR headsets we've tested, this head-mounted display (HMD) is underwhelming.

The HP Windows MR headset isn’t a bad headset, but it’s not a great one either. The product designers did several things right, such as include moisture-proof cushions and a removable tether cable. However, the negative features outweigh the positives, detracting from the overall value of the headset. Unless you get a screaming deal on the HP Windows MR headset, you may be better off with one of the competing options.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Kingston UV500 SATA SSD Review

Protecting data has always been important, but over the past year the general public and most any business have become security-conscious. Self–Encrypting Drives (SEDs) have been on the market for years, but very few people actually fully utilize these drives. Like the name implies, a self-encrypting drive uses an encryption engine built into the SSD’s controller to encrypt every file stored on the drive. This hardware-based encryption method offers a high level of data security, is invisible to the user, cannot be turned off and does not impact performance.

An SED is a life saver for many businesses as software encryption solutions can take hours to enable and all future data written to the drive will need CPU horsepower to do the encryption. This impacts system performance and is the least desirable and secure method for encryption. Since an SED SSD is already encrypting all its content, securing the drive might be as easy as enabling a password for the drive. By setting an ‘ATA password’ in your systems UEFI/BIOS you can easily secure a SATA SSD. The only kicker is that only a handful of modern desktop boards still have the option for an ATA password to be set, but it is still fairly common on laptops and business PCs. If your motherboard doesn’t support an ATA password you can use a third party utility like McAfee Endpoint Protection for PC, WinMagic SecureDoc or Wave Embassy Trust Suite to secure the drive.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Mistel MD600 Barocco RGB Keyboard Review

Mistel Keyboards carved out a name for the brand with their MD600 Barocco, a 60% form factor, split keyboard that was built so precisely that it could be easily combined back together to be a single-piece keyboard for all intents and purposes. Today, we take a look at the RGB version of the same that adds even more more on-board functionality and more Cherry MX switch options.

Mistel Keyboards, or simply Mistel as will be henceforth referred to for convenience, made a debut in the TechPowerUp review vault with their new MD870 SLEEKER keyboard late last year. It was a 87-key TKL form factor keyboard that was a reference for good build quality with its thick two-piece aluminium case and PBT plastic keycaps that promised longevity in addition to form and function. The Mistel brand was before otherwise known mostly for their Barocco series of keyboards that offered a fairly unique take on keyboards at release and still do so in 2018. Today, we get to take a close look at the MD600 Barocco keyboard, and thanks again to Mistel for providing a review sample.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Super Flower Leadex II Gold 1000w Power Supply Review

Super Flower is a bit of an unusual brand in terms of their consumer knowledge. While many will not be aware of them, to others it’s a name with a lot of good connotations. Like a brandy connoisseur giving an approving nod to a fine tipple, Super Flower falls into a similar bracket with anyone who owns or sees one. It’s a brand that speaks of something a little different, but with an impressive reputation.

We tend to not have too many romantic notions here at eTeknix, but we find ourselves in a similar position when asked to review the Super Flower Leadex II Gold 1000w power supply. Like the brandy, we expect this to be good before we even taste it.

Read full article @ eTeknix

The Best Sports Video Game of All Time

The latest sports games are not always the best. There's an obsession with incremental changes and bullet-point features, one which challenges fan's ability to take a step back and assess each game as its own title. It's something I try to do and I'm taking to its logical conclusion here in this Quixotic attempt to pluck one game out of hundreds and call it the "best."

Read full article @ TechSpot

The Crew 2 Review

One day I’m going to find a Ubisoft game that where I don’t use the line “That Ubisoft Game” or point out the fact that [insert new Ubisoft game here] is just the same as every other, maybe just with a different mode of transport and a change in the palette. The Crew 2 is not that game and is just as bland.

Imagine a huge, stellar sized asterisk at the site of that statement. Why? Because there is something about The Crew 2 that leaves it captivating, though somehow tedious at the same time. Where else can you fly from one end of continental US to the other? Then, while flying around Lady Liberty or Mt Rushmore, magically transport into and drop down in an Aston Martin Vanquish? Only in one of my very vivid and imaginative dreams, that’s where. Usually Emma Stone is in the passenger seat too. But I digress, more on The Crew 2.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Wooting One Review

So the big trend recently in mechanical keyboards has been optical switches. You have even seen companies like Razer jumping on just this past week. I’ve had a few in the office testing like the Bloody B975 that I reviewed a few weeks ago. But there is one keyboard that is taking a different approach. Its called the Wooting One. It’s an optical keyboard as ell and its been out for a while. They actually have their Kickstarter live right now for the full sized Wooting Two. Anyhow, I have been testing the TKL sized Wooting One for a while now. It uses Flaretech optical switches and with those, they are able to offer a full analog input experience. What that means is where other keyboard switches are just on or off, these are like a gas pedal and can detect input through the entire range. For most things, you will use them in a normal way, but in some games, you can use them to get a better control. So today I’m going to check out what the whole Wooting experience is all about and see how their keyboard stands out.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews