Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Game Mode, Benchmarked
ASUS ROG Poseidon GTX 1080 Ti 11G Video Card Review
ASUS ROG SWIFT PG348Q Gaming Monitor Review
ASUS TUF X299 MARK 1 Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE AX370 Gaming K7 AM4 Motherboard Review
Gigabytes Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming 8 motherboard reviewed
ID-Cooling Frostflow+ 280 AIO Cooler Review
Intel Kabylake CPUs will not work with Z370 motherboards, at least not yet
Keeping Intel Core X-Series CPUs Cool With Noctua Air Cooling
Kingston KC1000 960GB PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive Review
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C Review

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Game Mode, Benchmarked

We put AMD’s gaming performance to the test, using synthetic benchmarks like VRMark and 3DMark as well as real-world gaming tests. If you crave lots of cores and tons of PCIe connectivity, like most content creators, multitaskers, and software developers, then Threadripper is for you. It might also be a good fit if you're a gamer who simultaneously runs heavily threaded productivity applications in the background.
The Zeppelin die really is a feat of modern engineering. However, its architecture is dissimilar from anything that came before, creating issues in some software written prior to Ryzen's introduction. AMD worked with game developers to iron out the performance wrinkles we identified at launch, and we've seen big speed-ups in a number of titles as a result.
But expanding beyond Ryzen 7, 5, and 3 into a dual-die configuration adds a new set of challenges for Threadripper.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

ASUS ROG Poseidon GTX 1080 Ti 11G Video Card Review

Since its launch in May of 2016, Nvidia has produced nine different models with the Pascal architecture. These range from the recently released GT 1030, to the Titan X and Titan XP. That just covers the GeForce cards. However, no card was more anticipated than the GTX 1080 Ti.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

ASUS ROG SWIFT PG348Q Gaming Monitor Review

Hey guys today we’ll look at the gorgeous monitor the Asus PG348Q, the monitor I was waiting to get my hands on for so long as in theory it could be the best gaming monitor out there and its spec sheet definitely supports my statement. So, meet the Asus very first 21:9 Ultra wide Display the PG348Q, Asus flagship monitor in the ROG (Republic of Gamers) lineup. It features an ultra-wide curved display, an IPS panel, 3440 x 1440 resolution and NVIDIA G-Sync Technology. Detailed specifications are as under.

Read full article @ Enostech

ASUS TUF X299 MARK 1 Motherboard Review

So what’s the deal with the TUF X299 MARK 1? Well, it features a deluge of gunmetal gray plastic armor which although gimmicky in my opinion, really looks fantastic if you’re into sweet, clean and simple motherboard aesthetics. The X299 TUF themed MARK 1 motherboard sports 3 x PCIe x16 lanes, as well as 2 x PCIe x4 slots and supports SLI/Crossfire multi-GPU configurations, as well as a dedicated PCIe M.2 port with a heatsink which is integrated into the PCH heatsink for maximum heat dissipation; this is on top of an additional hybrid SATA/PCIe port depending on how many PCI lanes your processor has.

Focusing on memory support, the X299 TUF MARK 1 has 8 DIMM slots and supports quad & dual channel memory up to speeds of 4133MHz OC, with a maximum of 128GB of total system memory supported; XMP 2.0 support is featured on this board along with all other X299 motherboards.

Storage options include 8 x SATA3 ports with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 being supported, alongside that dedicated PCIe M.2 port for the fastest NVME enabled drives on the market. This is in addition to a secondary SATA/PCIe port and it’s worth mentioning that the TUF X299 MARK 1 motherboard supports Intel’s new Optane Memory!

Read full article @ Play3r

GIGABYTE AX370 Gaming K7 AM4 Motherboard Review

GIGABYTE is one of the world’s largest motherboard manufacturers. GIGABYTE is best known for its motherboards but the company offers a diverse product line that spans other components such as graphics cards, peripherals, laptops, servers and more. GIGABYTE has even diversified its motherboard brand along with the rest of its products. It’s AORUS brand is specifically targeted at gamers and computing enthusiasts.

Given the almost identical PCB and feature set, the AX370 Gaming K7 review is going to come off more like a comparison piece between the two motherboards. Frankly, there is a lot of rehashing going on here because these two motherboards are almost identical save for three changes. These changes are important as I’m sure most of you will agree. Like it’s slightly cheaper brother, the AX370 Gaming K7 is based on AMD’s X370 chipset and supports all Ryzen series CPUs available at the time of this writing. This is what I would consider a premium offering, although it’s not the most expensive X370 motherboard you could get, nor the most feature rich out there.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Gigabytes Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming 8 motherboard reviewed

When we shop for motherboards, the TR staff tends to be a pretty conservative bunch. Give us a fully-featured midrange board for $150 to $200 or so, and we're happy campers. Motherboards in that price range tend to have everything the average user needs and nothing they don't, so it only makes sense that those are the boards we buy for ourselves.

I say this every time we write a motherboard review because the argument for $200-and-up motherboards has rarely been convincing. Motherboard makers often add in features on their range-topping boards that the vast majority of us have no use for in this day and age. Expensive PLX PCIe switches for quad-SLI or Crossfire configs are perhaps the most ready example of this kind of expensive, power-hungry excess, but liquid-cooling blocks for VRMs, vast E-ATX PCBs, and more power phases than could fit in a box of donuts are typical of the breed, as well.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

ID-Cooling Frostflow+ 280 AIO Cooler Review

t’s been more than 5 months since we had an ID-Cooling product on our test bench, but today we wait no longer, as we have the privilege of being able to test their newest product on the market…namely the Frostflow+ 280.

The previous three AIO coolers we have tested have all performed really well, and all have walked away with our recommended award. This time we have our first 280mm variant from ID-Cooling, that comes with the promise of the very best value for money possible, without compromising on performance.

Read full article @ Play3r

Intel Kabylake CPUs will not work with Z370 motherboards, at least not yet

Looks like first Intel Coffeelake-S samples are already reaching reviewers. Intel Z370 says no to Kabylake Guys over at Hardware.info tested what we all wanted to know, the inter-compatibility between the sockets. The short story is that you cannot upgrade your Kabylake processor to a new motherboard (Z370), despite the fact that the motherboard has the same socket. It works both ways, because you cannot use i7-8700K CPU with the Z270/170 motherboard either, but that may just need a new BIOS. The new (Z370) motherboard should, however, already support Kabylake processors, unless, Intel had no plans for it.

Read full article @ VideoCardz.com

Keeping Intel Core X-Series CPUs Cool With Noctua Air Cooling

With the ten-core / 20-thread Core i9 7900X CPU having a 140 Watt TDP, it's a lot to keep cool with air cooling. Even more, with the soon-to-launch new Core i9 models, you really need a beefy heatsink fan if wishing to avoid water cooling. In this article are some tests with different Noctua heatsinks. Besides being able to cool these 2017X processors, the other requirement too is that they fit within 4U space requirements. The heatsinks benchmarked today included the Noctua NH-C14S, NH-U9S, Noctua NH-D9L, NF-A9 PWM fan, and NF-A14 PWM fan.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Kingston KC1000 960GB PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive Review

Over the past few years Kingston has delegated their high-performance products to their HyperX brand. This includes memory, solid state drives, and gaming products. It is no surprised that Kingston launched their first PCI-Express solid state drive under that brand. The HyperX Predator was released over two years and now Kingston has the KC1000 under the main Kingston brand. This is to appeal to more mainstream customers, but this drive still packs in a punch with advertised sequential read and write speeds of 2700 MB/s and 1600 MB/s respectively. Kingston powers this drive with the Phison PS5007-E7 controller and Toshiba 15nm MLC NAND. Let’s see what this drive can do!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C Review

There are pros and cons of each type. Most of the air coolers tend to be bulky and take up much space. This puts pressure on the motherboard’s PCB and on the CPU as well. Skylake was one of the examples where many damaged CPUs were reported due to the sheer weight of the cooler. Not to mention the compatibility issues of the air coolers with RAM, the first PCIe slot and the chassis itself. AIO/Hybrids/Custom Loop would clear that space around the CPU socket but many users avoid them for the fear of leakage.
While the market for the coolers may seem saturated, it is surprising to find more competitive offerings from the old players and new players alike. Recently, during CES 2017, EVGA, a well-known Nvidia’s AIB partner has announced their AIO coolers for CPU. EKWB is known for its top-notch, quality components in liquid cooling under the custom loop. The company introduced their unique AIO in 2015. Reeven has entered in this market segment recently with their 240mm CLC named Naia.
Thermaltake Technology Inc. was founded in 1999 with the vision of building Thermaltake Technology into “a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology, and lifestyle”. Thermaltake Technology is focused on delivering the perfect user experience. Their products range from Power Supply Units, PC Chassis, Complete Custom Loop solutions, CPU Coolers, Fans to the range of the peripherals like keyboards, mouse, mouse mat, headphones and even gaming chairs. The very essence of the Thermaltake DNA is based on Courage, Passion, and Perseverance.

Read full article @ Enostech