Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Apexgaming AG-850M Review
ASRock X299M Extreme 4 Motherboard Review
ASUS STRIX H370-I GAMING (Intel H370) Motherboard Review
Blue Raspberry Microphone Review
Core i7 8700K vs. Ryzen 7 2700X With Rise of The Tomb Raider On Linux
Corsair Dark Core RGB SE + MM1000 Qi Review
Frostpunk for PC Review
Lacie 2Big Dock 20TB Thunderbolt 3 Drive Review
Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Review
Nintendo Labo Variety Kit Review
Roccat Horde AIMO RGB Gaming Keyboard Review
The ASRock X299 Extreme4 Motherboard Review: $200 Entry To HEDT

Apexgaming AG-850M Review

The AG-850M is made by Solytech and belongs to Apextechusa's new Apexgaming PSU line. It has a capacity of 850W, a fully modular cable design, and is backed by a ten-year warranty. On paper, everything looks good; however, in real life, things are not always at their best.

Solytech is a PSU manufacturer with many years of experience in the field; however, the company is not all that active in the high-end since it mostly participates in the lower-end budget categories. We haven't yet had a chance to review a modern Solytech unit and are curious to see how the new AG line, offered by Apexgaming, fares in comparison to competing offerings. Solytech recently released a new platform, and Apextechusa LLC used it in its Apexgaming brand. The AG line consists of six new PSUs with capacities ranging from 650W to 850W. Three of these are semi-modular, while the rest feature a fully modular cable design. All are 80 PLUS Gold certified, and the flagship of the line, the AG-850M, is also certified by Cybenetics as ETA-A- for its efficiency performance. The same unit, however, didn't receive a noise certification since it doesn't even meet the minimum requirements Cybenetics sets. As you can probably imagine, this is a very noisy PSU.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ASRock X299M Extreme 4 Motherboard Review

We’ve been having a lot of fun testing ASRock motherboards these last few weeks. Firstly, we tested their awesome X470 Taichi Ultimate, and more recently, their X299 Taichi XE. Both of those are pretty crazy motherboards with the prices to match. However, if you’re looking for a little more modestly extreme solution, the X299M Extreme 4 Micro-ATX motherboard has a lot to offer, without getting too crazy, and costing under £200.

“Extra-large aluminium alloy heatsink along with heat pipe that effectively take away heat from the MOSFET, so that your whole system may perform more stable. Designed with an 11-Power-Phase Design, this motherboard features sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. Plus, it offers unmatched overclocking capabilities and enhanced performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers as well.” – ASRock

Read full article @ eTeknix

ASUS STRIX H370-I GAMING (Intel H370) Motherboard Review

Today we are taking a look at another high-end H370 motherboard, and ASUS STRIX mini-ITX motherboard. It has dual NICs, but it also carries Intel's new 160Mhz WIFI controller that can go up to 1.73Gbps but also supports all types of Wireless AC. The motherboard features high-end aesthetics including heat sinks, integrated IO shield, and some nice backside LEDs. Let's take a look at what the Strix H370-I Gaming has to offer.

The STRIX H370-I GAMING features dual x4 PCI-E 3.0 M.2 slots (one supports SATA), dual Gbit LAN ports, Intel's new 1.7Gbps Wireless-AC, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and SATA6Gb/s.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Blue Raspberry Microphone Review

Blue's Raspberry microphone is the ultimate portable mic that works not just with your Mac or PC, but your iPhone and iPad as well —but isn't the best choice for an arm-mount or for the less mobile.

We are constantly recording audio here at AppleInsider be it for our podcast or our latest video. This includes making those recordings not only in the office but on the road. Usually, when we pack up to head to the latest event, we have lots of equipment to take with us.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Core i7 8700K vs. Ryzen 7 2700X With Rise of The Tomb Raider On Linux

Last week were some basic Linux gaming benchmarks with the Zen+ CPUs vs. Intel though for the most part the i7-8700K was still leading. Since our original Ryzen 5 2600X + Ryzen 7 2700X Linux benchmarks I did discover that an updated ASUS BIOS does significantly help with the CPU performance. I have repeated the same Linux gaming benchmarks from last week, but long story short there wasn't any real difference compared to the original results. The updated BIOS/AGESA appears to primarily help with CPU heavy workloads and those that are multi-threaded, unfortunately of which there aren't too many Linux games that are quite thread friendly. But in this article is our first look at the new Linux port of Rise of the Tomb Raider while testing on these latest Intel/AMD CPUs. AMD also notified us we will be receiving Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 7 2700 (non-X models) for Linux benchmarking shortly on Phoronix.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Corsair Dark Core RGB SE + MM1000 Qi Review

The Dark Core RGB SE is Corsair's latest gaming mouse. This particular product combines a very attractive design with good build quality and Qi charging. Apart from that there is an optical sensor with 16'000 DPI resolution. We're actually pretty curious to find out if the Dark Core RGB SE is able to convince us or not. In order to charge the mouse with the Qi module you have to combine it with the MM1000 Qi mouse pad. On following you will find our thoughts on this product too.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Frostpunk for PC Review

Frostpunk is a bleak and emotional experience that is as engaging as it is impactful.

Most of gaming's post-apocalyptic universes (such as Fallout or Metro) are the way they are because of human actions, with nuclear war being the plot direction most writers take. Frostpunk, though, opts to go down a separate path: a climate disaster that ends up wiping almost all of humanity out. Between this unique approach to the post-apocalyptic genre, the excellent gameplay mechanics, and the fantastic narrative itself, Frostpunk is an experience that you shouldn't miss out on.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Lacie 2Big Dock 20TB Thunderbolt 3 Drive Review

Lacie is a premium external storage brand owned by Seagate. Due to its design, it makes an appearance geared towards Mac users of various requirement. This is the LaCie 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 HDD system with 2x Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB HDD which I’ve tested as an internal drive a few days ago along with the 12TB IronWolf Pro.

You can use this for PCs, but designs of many LaCie drives make an impression to be made towards iOS MAC systems. Regardless, this is a two-HDD SATA dock system with hot-swappable cage system with a USB 3.0, a CF and an SD card reader on the front. The whole chassis is made of aluminum and has a very hefty weight even compared to a two-docked HDD NAS systems.

Read full article @ Hardware BBQ

Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Review

Ahead of CES this year, Lenovo refreshed its lineup of ThinkPads with eighth-generation U-series processors. The new PCs come with a built-in privacy guard for the camera, USB Type-C charging that's designed for mechanical docking, and more.

The ThinkPad T480 is considered to be the workhorse of the lineup. With a somewhat rugged design, users can hot swap the battery. There's an internal 24Wh battery, and an additional battery that comes in 24Wh, 48Wh, and 72Wh sizes. As long as that internal battery has a charge, you can swap out the external one without ever turning off the device.

Read full article @ Neowin

Nintendo Labo Variety Kit Review

Nintendo Labo is an incredibly difficult thing to sum up. Many video game experiences can be fairly linear or have a “best strategy” or something that essentially codifies the way you interact with the game world. Nintendo Labo has that, certainly, but it also acknowledges that it’s worth is intrinsically linked to whatever the user wants to do, or whatever they are able to do.

It starts with the building, where you follow an in-depth tutorial which takes you through which pieces to pop out of which sheets of cardboard, how to crease them, how to fold them, literally every step is gone through in painstaking detail for you to follow along with. Simple enough for a child to be able to do it, basically.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Roccat Horde AIMO RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

In this article for Benchmark Reviews, I will put the Roccat Horde AIMO keyboard through it’s paces, and see if the keyboard is up to snuff when it comes to gaming and general use. Roccat claims that the Horde AIMO has the perfect balance between membrane and mechanical keys, calling them ‘membranical’ keys.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

The ASRock X299 Extreme4 Motherboard Review: $200 Entry To HEDT

ASRock has used the Extreme line in their motherboards almost as far as I can remember. The lineup usually starts with an Extreme3 and ends with Extreme9 (or Extreme11 for some special products). The Extreme3 and Extreme4 boards have always been reserved for the entry level, attempting to offer a feature set found on more expensive boards from the competition. Many users (and reviewers) have called the Extreme4 one of the better 'bang for your buck' motherboards available.

The ASRock X299 Extreme4 is aiming high. It has large dual heatsinks to keep an 11-phase power delivery cool, dual M.2 slots both able to work at PCIe x4 speeds, SLI/Crossfire support, and USB 3.1 ports on the rear panel. While it may not have some of the added extras from the mid-range price segment (three M.2 slots, three-way GPU, front panel USB 3.1), it has enough of the major features to merit a good entry into the platform.

Read full article @ Anandtech