Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ASUS ROG Gladius II Origin Review
ASUS ROG Strix RX Vega 64 OC Edition 8GB Video Card Tests
Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 Review
Dell XPS 13 (9370) Review
EIZO FlexScan EV2785 Review
ERL Wireless Sports Earbuds Review
Far Cry 5 Video Card Performance Review
HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
i-Rocks K70E Capacitive Keyboard Review
NORCO RPC-3216 3U rackmount 16 bay hot swap server chassis
Phanteks Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass Case Review

ASUS ROG Gladius II Origin Review

The ASUS ROG Gladius II Origin comes with a number of amazing features. Aura Sync RGB lighting, top-of-the-line optical sensor, socket-switch design, detachable cable - and I did not mention it all. ASUS really did set the standards high this time, but the price tag turned out to be quite spicy.

ASUS certainly isn't unknown in the world of gaming as their ROG line has introduced some quite amazing innovations within these past twelve years. Their peripherals are no exception, either. The original first-edition Gladius debuted in 2014, being their flagship mouse back then with a unique socket-switch design, high-end optical sensor, and maximum polling rate of 2000 Hz. Three years later, the Gladius II was introduced as a worthy successor, and now, less than a year after its predecessor came out, the Gladius II Origin has also been released. The price tag, just like with the previous models, is quite spicy, but is it worth it? Let's see!

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ASUS ROG Strix RX Vega 64 OC Edition 8GB Video Card Tests

RX Vega 64 is able to offer near GTX 1080 performance in most DirectX 11 titles, but performs exceptionally in newer, DirectX 12 games where it is able to exceed the performance levels of the Nvidia card. The Strix version coming from ASUS does feature a factory overclock, but the speed it will actually run at really depends on multiple factors such as power limits (for the GPU, HBM2 memory) but also temperature. When trying to overclock the card, we could not increase the clock much further, which is telling us that the Strix is pretty much running already at max capacity.

Read full article @ Mad Shrimps

Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 Review

These new RGB DRAM sticks are available in 8GB and 16GB capacities and 2666MHz and 3000MHz frequencies. CAS timings are 16-18-18-38 @ 1.35v. All modules are available individually, in matched pairs or in 4-piece kits for ultimate capacity.

Today we look at the 32GB 3000MHz kit, in the form of 4x 8GB modules, priced at around £450 in the UK. These modules are fully customisable with the DDR4 Ballistix Mod Utility, giving the user full control over all 64 of the LEDs. Not only that, there’s also the ability to 3D print your own light bar which will slide into the place of the existing, supplied piece.

Read full article @ Vortez

Dell XPS 13 (9370) Review

Since Dell renewed its XPS 13 series in 2015 with an inventive design, these laptops have been among the most desirable on the market. The formula: a unique design with extra narrow screen edges, a thin and light casing, fast hardware and a good battery life. With this combination, the XPS 13 still enjoys great popularity, but competition is increasing. That's why Dell showed a 'completely renewed' XPS 13 at the CES last January. If you see this XPS 13 (9370) next to the old model, then at first glance hardly anything seems to have changed. Is the new version convincing?

Extra narrow bezels may be a design trend on smartphones nowadays, but in 2015 the Dell XPS 13 was already showing them off. In this way, the dimensions of the thin casing were smaller than those of other 13 inch laptops. Excellent performance and long battery life made the laptop a complete portable workhorse. This made the XPS 13 a formidable competitor in the luxury lightweight laptops market, which also includes Apple's Macbook.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

EIZO FlexScan EV2785 Review

EIZO's FlexScan EV2785 is an excellent 27" office monitor. It is equipped with a high-quality 4K IPS panel that's been carefully factory-calibrated, and a USB-C port, which turns it into an attractive proposition for everyone who owns a USB-C laptop, since the monitor can be used not only to expand the desktop, but also to conveniently charge the battery and connect peripherals.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ERL Wireless Sports Earbuds Review

Wireless earbuds are the hottest smartphone accessory (commodity in some rare cases based on price) right now and for good reason since not only do they offer stereo audio (making them ideal for music playback) but they also feature longer battery life (especially when a portable charger/case is in the bundle) and are more compact compared to regular hands free headsets. This of course means that a large number of manufacturers all over the world has either released or are starting to release such products and although there are some well-established ones among them (Jabra, Bose and Onkyo are the first three that come to mind) the majority is not and this is where the you get what you pay for "rule" comes in. Thankfully some rare exceptions however always exist and a rather new company called ERL (Electronics Research Lab) with their brand new crowd funded Wireless Sports Earbuds aims to be among them.

We love everything about electronics. We are fascinated by technologies that will have a tangible impact on our daily lives. We are missioned to bring the best technologies to consumer products. Transmitting audio signals wirelessly has amazing applications. These tiny, wireless earbuds, empowered by smart engineering and designs, are bringing the next revolution in wireless audio market. We believe that creating the best user experience is the best way to share our vision about the future.

Read full article @ Nikktech

Far Cry 5 Video Card Performance Review

In today’s full performance evaluation, we are going to take our testing much further. We are now including eleven video cards, from the very high-end GTX 1080 Ti down to the low-tier Radeon RX 460 and GTX 1050 Ti. We will be testing what is playable on each video card as well as comparing each video card to each other at the same apples-to-apples settings. We will be testing AA performance and Volumetric Fog performance. We have sampled VRAM capacity and are also going to look at AA image quality. We are doing this all now having played much further into the game with a brand-new run-through that incorporates all the game mechanics.

Read full article @ HardOCP

HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Up till now, we have seen three mechanical keyboards from HyperX, all of which have very similar names. First comes the Alloy FPS, which is the entry product by name, but was a keyboard which sported many features we wish had been offered in the entire lineup. Then came the Alloy Elite which was the top of the line for HyperX. We then saw the Alloy FPS Pro, which is pretty much the Alloy FPS with more lighting modes. As we can see, HyperX is not against listening to their users and reworking a product to offer the masses what they want on a mechanical gaming keyboard.

The reworking of a design is what has us here today, and we are about to look at the evolution of the Alloy Elite. With the latest incarnation, we will see that three things have changed. First of all, the new design is RGB LED backlit this time, and second, while Cherry MX Brown switches were in the Alloy Elite options, our sample shipped with red switches. The third, and likely most important to power users is that HyperX has added new software called NGenuity, and is said to work across all of their new software-enabled devices.

Read full article @ TweakTown

i-Rocks K70E Capacitive Keyboard Review

The last i-Rocks review here on TechPowerUp was over a decade ago, which says a lot by itself. For one, we can gather that the company is not new and indeed with a long lineage as first an OEM in Taiwan for different companies and then a standalone brand. Secondly, they were not doing much of interest to the DIY PC enthusiast, at least in the West, with their focus on providing IT-related peripherals for the everyday user where OEM peripherals and perhaps Logitech peripherals next up in the ladder reigned supreme. In their own words, the rise of eSports and competitive gaming has now led to a change wherein they "truly believe that E-sports is only in its infant stages and needs every form of support that it can". Their products now include gaming equipment first and foremost, and something tells me you will want to read on and not immediately dismiss this as another cookie-cutter gaming keyboard maker either. Thanks again to i-Rocks for providing a review sample for us to examine here.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

NORCO RPC-3216 3U rackmount 16 bay hot swap server chassis

There are not many reasonably priced options when shopping for a rack mount 3U-4U server chassis with 16+ SAS/SATA hot swap hard drive bays. So, I ended up choosing between the ~$325-$350 NORCO RPC-3216 and RPC-3116 chassis. The only discernible difference between the two is that the RPC-3216 uses MiniSAS connectors and the RPC-3116 does not. Having found
the server hardware shopping experience to be reminiscent of what it was like to do the same with a PC, circa early 2000s… it was not clear to me which one I wanted to match up with the motherboard I selected, so I took a chance and opted for the RPC-3216. It meets all of the criteria that I was looking for in a server case, but has some quality and baffling layout issues.

Read full article @ MissingRemote

Phanteks Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass Case Review

I want to begin by giving a huge thanks to Phanteks for sending out their product for me to review! The Phanteks Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass chassis is suitable for most motherboards from full size ATX to mini-ITX form factor. It features high airflow, cable management, includes 1 x 120mm Phanteks fan, as well as support for Asus Aura Sync, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and Gigabyte RGB Fusion.

Read full article @ FunkyKit