Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor Review
AMD Ryzen 7 2700 Processor Review
Beat Saber (Oculus Rift) Early Access Review
Creative Metallix Plus Portable Water-resistant Bluetooth Speaker Review
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 2666Mhz Quad Channel Memory Review
Far Cry 5 Video Card Image Quality Review
M.2 & PCIe SSD Charts: 12 SSDs - Corsair Neutron NX500 400GB
Patriot Viper V370 Stereo Gaming Headset Review
Plantronics Blackwire C3220 Review
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Review
Scythe Ninja 5 CPU Cooler Review
The Best CPUs (Updated)
Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition Liquid CPU Cooler Review

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor Review

The second generation of Ryzen CPUs is here at last! Following on from our launch of the 2700X and the 2600X, the lower TDP non-X parts are here now too! We’ve already reviewed the 8-core R7 2700 and were impressed with what it had to offer. Of course, today it’s all about the 6-core Ryzen 5 2600, which looks set to be a superstar in the mid-range CPU market, with an affordable price, a low TDP of just 65W and it even comes bundled with the improved AMD Wraith Stealth Cooler; perfect for low profile systems.

Equipped with the new AMD StoreMI technology, you can combine your HDD and SSD, and M.2 drives into one fast pool of storage. Furthermore, SenseMI and Ryzen Master Utility will help you unlock the best performance from your hardware with virtually no effort. Automatic frequency adjustment and boosts, easy configuration of your memory speeds, voltages and more. You don’t have to dive into the BIOS and read the instruction book this time. Of course, the newer features of Ryzen Gen 2 are only supported on X470 motherboards, although the CPU will of course still work in any other AM4 motherboard.

Read full article @ eTeknix

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 Processor Review

The second generation of AMD Ryzen CPUs launched with a mighty bang last month. They propelled the performance of the Ryzen CPUs to new heights, breaking the 4 GHz barrier with ease, and delivering greatly improved performance. Not only that, they’re rubbing shoulders with Intel in the gaming department now, and blazing their own trail when it comes to multi-tasking. Of course, the Ryzen 7 2700X we reviewed was amazing, but at £282 current price (£329 MSRP), it’s a little more premium. The non-X part is just £248 (£259 MSRP), so a little more wallet-friendly.

Equipped with the new AMD StoreMI technology, you can combine your HDD and SSD, and M.2 drives into one fast pool of storage. Furthermore, SenseMI and Ryzen Master Utility will help you unlock the best performance from your hardware with virtually no effort. Automatic frequency adjustment and boosts, easy configuration of your memory speeds, voltages and more. You don’t have to dive into the BIOS and read the instruction book this time. Of course, the newer features of Ryzen Gen 2 are only supported on X470 motherboards, although the CPU will of course still work in any other AM4 motherboard.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Beat Saber (Oculus Rift) Early Access Review

Being my first really in-depth dive into using the Oculus Rift, I was a little hesitant about putting the headset on for a long period of time and jamming about in my spare bedroom. I was equally as hesitant about reviewing one of my first Early Access titles for Wccftech, unsure of just how much content developers Hyperbolic Magnetism could put into their first VR title. Still, the game is currently the highest-rated on Steam with an astonishing 99% positive user score, which made a compelling case to check it out.

The premise for their VR-exclusive rhythm experience is as bloody simple as the name itself: Beat Saber. Sabers that can cut along to the beat, what could be simpler than that?

Read full article @ Wccftech

Creative Metallix Plus Portable Water-resistant Bluetooth Speaker Review

After fully-charging the speaker (a full charge takes about five-six hours), we did pair it to our Huawei P10 Plus smartphone and started listening to tracks on TuneIn Radio but also SoundCloud; right away, we were not only impressed by the overall volume of such a small speaker, but also its ability to handle bass! Creative has quite a bit of experience in this area and the custom-tuned drivers along with the passive radiator seem to do wonders. Judging by the Metallix Plus performance, it is ideal to bring it with yourself at small, private parties but can also handle the outside environment since it was built with IPX5 splash proof capabilities.

Read full article @ Mad Shrimps

Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 2666Mhz Quad Channel Memory Review

For years I have spoken highly of Crucial as one of the silent innovators in the PC component world. They specialize in memory and storage solutions and many of the products they release slide under PC enthusiast radar for various reasons. It is no secret that Crucial memory isn’t the fastest memory on the market and often times not the cheapest either. However being part of the larger Micron ecosystem affords them the resources to build some of the most compatible modules you can buy.

In this review I’ll be going over the new Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer memory (BLT4K8G4D26BFT4K). This is a quad channel kit rated at DDR4-2666Mhz with latencies of CL16 with a respectable 1.2v. At launch these modules will be available in two speeds, 2666Mhz and 3000Mhz and module densities of 8GB and 16GB. What makes these modules truly unique is the strip of 16 LEDs that turn a standard memory module into an RGB lighted one.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Far Cry 5 Video Card Image Quality Review

We will be comparing Far Cry 5's Overall Quality, Shadows, Volumetric Fog, and Anti-Aliasing image quality. In addition, we will find out if we can improve IQ in the game by adding Anisotropic Filtering and forcing AA from the control panel. We've even have a video put together showing you many IQ issues we found in Far Cry 5, and those are plentiful.

On April 17th, we published our full Far Cry 5 Video Card Performance Review. In that performance review we took Far Cry 5 through its paces testing performance with eleven video cards to find the best value for performance at each resolution. In addition, we broke down Volumetric Fog and AA performance.

Read full article @ HardOCP

M.2 & PCIe SSD Charts: 12 SSDs - Corsair Neutron NX500 400GB

If you looking for a new M.2 or PCIe SSD this article helps you in getting an overview. So far we've tested 12 different drives and the list will grow whenever a new and relevant drive is released.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Patriot Viper V370 Stereo Gaming Headset Review

A few years ago, I reviewed the very first Patriot Viper headset, the V360. It was pretty fantastic value for money at the time and offered a nice range of features that were sure to please anyone looking for a good headset at a reasonable price. Now they’re back again with the V370, a tweaked and improved model that promises bigger and better performance, build quality and style.

With virtual 7.1 surround sound, USB connectivity, a fold-away microphone, RGB lighting, and some rumble drivers, it’s pretty well equipped. At around £40, it’s not going to break the bank either. However, that’s a very tricky section of the market, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Viper stacks up against the competition. Steelseries, TurtleBeach and a few others have a few headsets in this price range, and there are often compromises to get the price a little lower; will we see any with the Viper? Let’s find out!

Read full article @ eTeknix

Plantronics Blackwire C3220 Review

Plantronics is a reputable brand within the headset market and the C3220 is a great choice for the office.

Plantronics creates headsets for a number of scenarios. The RIG 800LX is a wireless solution for Xbox One and PC, while the C3220 is a professional headset for calls and general multimedia. The California-based company boasts the C3220 to be an excellent corded USB headset designed to deliver high-quality audio with a solid microphone for calls and other communications. We took it for a spin.

Read full article @ Windows Central

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Review

High performance portable storage is becoming more affordable and rightfully so. Being someone who works with 4K video having fast portable storage is important. Not only when I am traveling, but when I want to transfer files between two different machines. SanDisk’s latest Extreme Portable SSD gives you up to a 1TB capacity, rugged design with an IP55 rating, and read and write speeds of 550 MB/s and 500 MB/s respectively. Could this be the best portable solid state drive we’ve seen? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Scythe Ninja 5 CPU Cooler Review

Scythe Ninja is well known cooler series mostly because of its high performance and silent work. Many gamers and computer enthusiasts expect a lot when they see next Scythe cooler, especially one of these large towers. Today we will show you how the latest, Ninja 5 cooler performs on the Intel Skylake-X and Coffee Lake platforms.

Stay with us to find out if the Ninja 5 meets your expectations.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

The Best CPUs (Updated)

Today we're talking best CPUs and this is a prompt follow up to our late December buying guide update, with a few surprise categories, and of course, the latest available CPUs and platforms at play. It should be noted that we've recently made 'best of' recommendations for both Intel and AMD motherboards, with only the X470 platform now missing, and that's coming up very soon.

With Ryzen now a year in the market, it's brought more competition in the desktop CPU scene that we'd seen in years, it's an exciting time to be a PC enthusiast. After all the extensive testing you are familiar with, we've come up with this concise guide on the best CPU choices available right now.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Pairing top of the charts cooling efficiency with impressive RGB effects the Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition AIO Liquid CPU Cooler by Thermaltake is simply put the best model of its class money can buy today.

Read full article @ NikKTech