Here a roundup of the latest reviews and articles:

ADATA SX8200 Pro 256GB NVMe SSD Review
AMD Comments on Threadripper 2 Performance and Windows Scheduler
ASUS ROG RTX 2060 Strix OC (O6G) Review
Best Of CES 2019: Laptops, Displays, Systems And More
CES 2019 Show Report
Cooler Master MASTERAIR G100M CPU Cooler Review
Cougar Vortex RGB HPB 120 PWM HDB Cooling Kit Review
EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 XC Ultra 6 GB Review
EVGA RTX 2070 XC Gaming Review
GALAX XANOVA Magnetar XK700 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review
Gigabyte X399 Aorus Xtreme Review
HyperX Cloud MIX Wired Gaming Headset with Bluetooth Review
Intel Core i9-9990XE : Up to 5.0 GHz, Auction Only
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Review
Nimble chargers and batteries Review
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Pro OC 6 GB Review
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC Review
QNAP QSW-804-4C 10G Ethernet Switch Review
The $60 CPU Question: AMD Athlon 200GE or Intel Pentium Gold G5400?
The Case Mods of CES 2019
Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 AMP 6 GB Review

ADATA SX8200 Pro 256GB NVMe SSD Review

The series ships in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities during the initial rollout. A large 2TB model will come to market in early 2019, but we don't have the full specifications for that model yet. You may have missed it since we breezed by so fast, but the SX8200 Pro doesn't use the same overprovisioning as the previous generation. When you buy the 256GB model you get it all and not just 240GB. Overprovisioning increases performance under heavy workloads but the SX8200 Pro is a consumer-focused SSD. ADATA optimized the drive for consumer tasks while still preserving as much space for your applications.

The specification performance comes in two tiers with the SX8200 Pro 256GB being the odd man out. It sports 3,500 MB/s sequential read and 1,200 MB/s sequential write speeds. Random performance tops 220,000 read IOPS and 290,000 write IOPS.

Read full article @ TweakTown

AMD Comments on Threadripper 2 Performance and Windows Scheduler

Users may have been following Wendell from Level1Tech’s battle with researching the reasons behind why some benchmarks have regressed performance on quad-die Threadripper 2 compared to dual-die configurations. Through his research, he found that this problem was limited to Windows, as cross-platform software on Linux did not have this issue, and that the problem was not limited just to Threadripper 2, but quad-die EPYCs were also affected.

At the time, most journalists and analysts noted that the performance was lower, and that the Linux/Windows differences existed, but pointed the finger at the reduced memory performance of the large Threadripper 2 CPUs. At the time, Wendell discovered that removing CPU 0 from the thread pool, after the program starts running, it actually regained all of the performance loss on Windows.

After some discussions about what the issue was exactly, I helped Wendell with some additional testing, by running our CPU suite through an affinity mask at runtime to remove CPU 0 from the options at runtime. The results were negative, suggesting that the key to CPU 0 was actually changing it at run time.

Read full article @ Anandtech

ASUS ROG RTX 2060 Strix OC (O6G) Review

ASUS has created a stunning RTX 2060 card - but is it just too expensive for a 2060? Unlike the other RTX 20-series cards, Nvidia’s RTX 2060 Founders Edition is not a factory overclocked model – it ships with the reference boost clock of 1680MHz. That means it is up to Nvidia’s partners to ship factory overclocked models which push the boundaries of what a 2060 is capable of. This ASUS ROG RTX 2060 Strix OC, for instance, has an 1830MHz boost clock – but you can increase this to 1860MHz by enabling ‘OC Mode’ within ASUS’ GPU Tweak II software.

On top of that, there are also plenty of features to talk about – including dual-BIOS functionality, the triple-fan cooler and even an on-board Aura RGB header for connecting other RGB devices. With ASUS’ MSRP coming in at £455, though, are you getting a good deal?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Best Of CES 2019: Laptops, Displays, Systems And More

The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is one of the biggest events in the Tech space each year. We typically see a dizzying array of new products launch during the week of CES; more than we are likely to see in the following few months. Not all products are block-buster standouts though, and some of these technological spectacles inevitably shine brighter than others.

After sifting though all the products we saw last week, we've compiled a list of the best products that we got time with at CES 2019. And with that, we'll just dive right in...

Read full article @ HotHardware

CES 2019 Show Report

The Consumer Electronics Show is the annual gathering of over 180,000 people from all over the world who converge on Las Vegas to see the latest and greatest from over 4,000 exhibits. This year was interesting and thought-provoking.

Read full article @ BabelTechReviews

Cooler Master MASTERAIR G100M CPU Cooler Review

Reminiscent of the Jupiter 2 from the 1960's version of the TV series Lost In Space, the Cooler Master G100M is affectionately called the UFO cooler. The G100M is a low profile cooler designed to fit into smaller cases especially mini-ITX.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Cougar Vortex RGB HPB 120 PWM HDB Cooling Kit Review

Imagine my happiness when I realized Cougar's new RGB equipped 120mm triple fan cooling kit provided both RGB lighting and fans that kept my neurotic fear of overheating in check. The Cougar Vortex RGB HPB 120 PWM HDP Cooling Kit might be some of the best fans I've ever put into a case, and I definitely don't say that lightly.

Read full article @ MMORPG

EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 XC Ultra 6 GB Review

EVGA's RTX 2060 XC Ultra is the company's flagship RTX 2060, priced at $399. It comes with the largest overclock of all RTX 2060 cards: 1830 MHz. Also you may raise the board power limit to 217 W, which is almost the maximum capability of the 8-pin PCIe power input configuration.

NVIDIA earlier this month launched its most important GeForce RTX 20-series graphics card, the RTX 2060, along the sidelines of CES 2019. With a list price of $349, this card is designed for affordable 1440p gaming with all details cranked up, including real-time raytracing RTX features. The de facto reference-design RTX 2060 rendition, dubbed Founders Edition, was reviewed last week. The RTX 2060 is a primarily partner-driven launch, which means there could be dozens of custom-design graphics card models from NVIDIA's various add-in card partners (AICs).

The RTX 2060 was rumored to come in half a dozen sub-variants based on memory size and type, although in the end, NVIDIA only launched the top-spec variant with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. Perhaps, NVIDIA is saving the other SKUs up for when its GTX 1060 inventories are sufficiently off the shelves and spring-summer sets in. NVIDIA carved the RTX 2060 out from the same silicon as the RTX 2070, the 12 nm Turing "TU106." This means you very much do get RT cores and Tensor cores, and NVIDIA wants you to enjoy real-time ray-traced gaming with this card, particularly with RTX enabled, and NVIDIA's ambitious new image-quality innovation, DLSS (deep-learning super-sampling).

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

EVGA RTX 2070 XC Gaming Review

One of the card designs that stood out to me with all of the RTX launches was EVGAs new designs. I was surprised to see them go with a transparent cooler design that lets you look inside and see the heatsink. I wanted to get a closer look so EVGA sent over their RTX 2070 XC Gaming. The XC Gaming isn’t their fastest RTX 2070, but it does have the same overclock that the Founders Edition card and it sells for less. So I was really curious to see how it performed and to see if it might be worth spending some of that valuable post-Christmas or tax time money. So today I’m going to run it through all of our normal testing and take a closer look at the card itself. Let's go check it out!

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

GALAX XANOVA Magnetar XK700 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review

XANOVA is a peripheral sub-brand for GALAX. This is the XANOVA Magnetar XK700 mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switch offerings. This is a full-set keyboard with the usual RGB offerings and a volume rocker buttons. As said in the earlier review, the peripheral market is overcrowded but it also seems to sell through whatever space any brands can get. Even with GALAX’s branding, XANOVA needs to stand out on its own, something that certain brand new offerings from established PC component makers were not able to establish. Remember when G Skills tried its hand with peripherals?

Read full article @ Hardware BBQ

Gigabyte X399 Aorus Xtreme Review

How does AMD's top-end 2990WX perform in a full-fledged recent X399 offering? Spoiler Alert: Gigabyte learned a thing or two and the X399 Aorus Xtreme board gets it right.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

HyperX Cloud MIX Wired Gaming Headset with Bluetooth Review

There is no shortage of wireless gaming headsets these days, with 2.4 GHz via USB dongle the most common option. The HyperX Cloud MIX provides wireless connectivity of the Bluetooth variety, and if you need or just prefer a wired connection dont worry - as the name implies these provide wired analog audio via a 3.5mm headset plug, with a Y-cable is also included to split off mic and audio to your sound cards requisite I/O.

An interesting addition to the standard Bluetooth codecs with the Cloud MIX is aptX support, which means this headset has the capability of far better wireless audio quality than the standard SBC codec can provide - if you have a way to connect with aptX, that is. Its also worth noting that the Cloud MIX is actually the first Bluetooth-capable headset HyperX has released, with latency a roadblock to its adoption in this market.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Intel Core i9-9990XE : Up to 5.0 GHz, Auction Only

AnandTech has seen documents and supporting information from multiple sources that show that Intel is planning to release a new high-end desktop processor, the Core i9-9990XE. These documents show that the processors will not be sold at retail; rather they will only be sold to system integrators, and then only through a closed online auction. 

 

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Review

We review the new MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z edition. This is a more premium line of gaming series products. MSI has already tweaked the cards towards an 1830 MHz Boost frequency for you, making this a very rather fast offer in the RTX lineup, that looks terrific as well.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

Nimble chargers and batteries Review

Nimble is on a mission to overturn the battery and charging industries, making them a force for good. AppleInsider goes hands-on with the entire Nimble lineup to see how these eco-friendly chargers stack up to the high-priced market leaders.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Palit GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Pro OC 6 GB Review

Palit's GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Pro OC is the most affordable custom design RTX 2060 we've reviewed so far, yet it comes with the best cooler, reaching temperatures of only 68°C under load. Unfortunately idle-fan-stop is missing, but the card makes up for it with extremely quiet idle noise levels.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC Review

For our first AIB partner RTX 2060 review we look at the Palit GamingPro OC edition. This is a more affordable line of products, but see that OC in the naming? Yeah, this puppy is already tweaked for you in the 1800 Mhz Boost range, making this a very attractive offer in the RTX lineup.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

QNAP QSW-804-4C 10G Ethernet Switch Review

Gigabit Ethernet connectivity may be more than sufficient for the majority of home networks but it's far from convenient when it comes to office and small business use so even though it did take a while 10GbE connectivity is now more popular than ever before. This of course is largely due to several price drops over the years so although back in 2015 when we first started doing 10GbE NAS reviews it was considered as way too expensive (niche) today things have changed so even some mid-end mainboards feature 10GbE ethernet controllers (alas not the highest performance ones). This is also why we've also seen a significant increase in NAS models ready with 10GbE cards right from the factory lately so things are really looking good for office/business users (and even home users) looking to upgrade their local network to 10GbE speeds. QNAP released their first 10GbE switches last year and after spending 1 full month with their QSW-804-4C model our review is finally here.

QNAP Systems, Inc., headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, provides a comprehensive range of cutting-edge Network-attached Storage (NAS) and video surveillance solutions based on the principles of usability, high security, and flexible scalability. QNAP offers quality NAS products for home and business users, providing solutions for storage, backup/snapshot, virtualization, teamwork, multimedia, and more. QNAP envisions NAS as being more than "simple storage", and has created many NAS-based innovations to encourage users to host and develop Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning solutions on their QNAP NAS.

The QNAP QSW-804-4C is a compact, unmanaged 8-port 10GbE switch (can be used both as a desktop model and in a rack) that offers 4 SFP+ fiber ports, 4 RJ45 copper ports and 4 SFP+/RJ45 combo ports (all 10GbE) featuring a total switching capacity of 160Gbps. Also, thanks to its support for the 10GBASE-T and NBASE-T standards (5 speed auto negotiation - 10G/5G/2.5G/1G100M) the QSW-804-4C 10GbE switch is compatible with existing cables so there's no reason for you to go out and get the far more expensive (still far more affordable compared to active optical cables - AOC) direct attach cables (DAC). QNAP has also given the switch support for the IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet standard that basically allows physical layer transmitters to consume far less power during periods of low or no data activity. Another feature that may not stands out at first is its dual 40mm exhaust fans which as you all see later on in our review even while in operation are almost inaudible. This may not be a game changing feature for most office/business uses but for home use (or even in our lab for that matter) this is extremely important.

Read full article @ NikKTech

The $60 CPU Question: AMD Athlon 200GE or Intel Pentium Gold G5400?

In the course of our reviews, when we get a chance to get hands on with random processors, we run our test suite and add the data to our database. Sometimes that doesn’t materialize directly into a review, but at least we have the data. Two very similar CPUs have come across my desk recently: AMD’s dual core Athlon 200GE, and Intel’s Pentium G5400. Both chips are around the $60 mark, have some form of integrated graphics, and are aimed at the cheapest systems.

Read full article @ Anandtech

The Case Mods of CES 2019

Each year at CES companies are showing off their hardware and what better way to showcase this hardware than inside of a case mod! This year we saw quite a lot of different mods from some of the biggest names in the modding community. Check out our Case Mods of CES 2019 Gallery!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 AMP 6 GB Review

ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 2070 is the first custom-design RTX 2070 that we review. It comes with a decent overclock out of the box and has the Samsung memory that we love so much, because it overclocks like crazy. Priced at $379, the card isn't much more expensive than the NVIDIA Founders Edition.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp