Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming Motherboard Review: Right-Priced RGB?
Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 PC Case Review
Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro L – NVIDIA Edition Review
CPC Hardware AMD Ryzen 7 2700X review goes online
Crucial's MX500 500 GB and 1 TB SSDs Review
De-lidding and Speed-binning Explained
Deepcool Quadstellar ATX Chassis Review
Dell Latitude 7490 review: Check out that battery life
EK-MLC Phoenix 360 Review
Far Cry 5 Benchmarked: 50 GPUs Tested
Far Cry 5 Review
Far Cry 5 Review: Rocket's red glare
FireFox Looks to Stop Cryptojackers in Your Browser
Fitbit Versa Review: A stylish smartwatch at the right price
HAVIT HV-KB395L Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Intel SSD DC P4510 NVMe PCIe Review
LanReel Review
MSI Immerse GH60 Gaming Headset Review
NVIDIA VOLTA's TITAN V DX12 Performance Efficiency
Philips Brilliance 328P6AUBREB 31.5in QHD Monitor Review
Plasma 5.12 - 28 Days Later
Sea of Thieves Xbox One Review: Fun is in the journey, not the destination
The best Intel X299 motherboards

Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming Motherboard Review: Right-Priced RGB?

Given its ROG label, is the Strix Z370-E Gaming a top-value high-end board, or just a tick up from the enthusiast mainstream? Let's look... We’ve been breaking motherboards into our own defined market segments for a few years, at least since before the boards themselves quit doing some "breaking" of their own. By which we mean: Motherboard prices went up when the PC-enthusiast market broke away from traditional PCs, and since then anything marketed for less than $160 has typically been equipped with only relatively basic features. The middle market, designed to satisfy most performance enthusiasts, has crept up to a rough range of $160 to $220, while a complete set of high-end features generally costs a bit over $220. And the wild stuff typically happens past $280.

With that said, the Strix Z370-E Gaming is priced at around $210. So, is this a better value in a high-end board, or just a mainstream overclocking board with a few added features? Let's take a closer look.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 PC Case Review

Its been a long time since I’ve reviewed anything from Cooler Master and we’re starting again with the Masterbox MB500. This is an ATX PC case with emphasis on its RGB fans and its wide array of colours, tempered side glass panel and thermal performance. So let us just get into it and see how it goes.

From its appearance, the packaging of the CM Masterbox MB500 looks small. It is even smaller than the Mastercase Pro 3 mATX PC case’s packaging. The packaging alone makes an impression similar to what CM Elite series ATX cases have made, but obviously, it would be bumped up to keep up with its Master philosophy. The packaging is minimal with adequate protection for the case. This is more important for cases like the MB500 as the side panel is tempered glass. It would be nice if the glass panel had some foam protection. Tempered glass can withstand accidental surface drops. But no hard drops. You get all the screws and mounts with the reading materials. By default, the standoffs are not pre-installed.

Read full article @ Hardware BBQ

Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro L – NVIDIA Edition Review

With the Masterkeys Pro L - NVIDIA Edition, Cooler Master adds yet another new series of gaming keyboard with backlight to their portfolio. This keyboard is a special version of the Masterkeys Pro L that we have a reviews a few months ago. The only difference about the two models is about the backlight and some NVIDIA logos. The keyboard comes with a standard
layout and CherryMX Red switches.

Read full article @ ocaholic

CPC Hardware AMD Ryzen 7 2700X review goes online

A member of Reddit community has published the graphs and summary from CPC Hardware review, which is available in the latest printed issue starting from today. Ryzen 2000: lower latency, but high power consumption Gaming benchmarks, which include GTA5, GRID Autosport, Battlefield 4, ARMA 3, X3:TC, Witcher 3 and COH2 indicate a 4% gain compared to last-gen flagship Ryzen 7 1800X. The Ryzen 7 2700X tops the synthetic benchmarks, which are based on HEVC to H264 encoding, Mathematica, PovRay, Blender, 3DSMax and Corona tests.

Read full article @ VideoCardz.com

Crucial's MX500 500 GB and 1 TB SSDs Review

Back in the summer of 2016, Crucial released the successor to its popular MX200 drive. The MX300 left behind the 16-nm planar MLC we knew and loved in its predecessors for IMFT's then-newfangled 3D TLC NAND. Despite our initial misgivings concerning the move from MLC to TLC, the MX300's 3D chops were enough to ensure that its speeds kept up with the older drive. Just a couple of months ago, Crucial took the wraps off of the next drive in the MX line, the MX500. 

As you can see, little has changed on the exterior. But it's what's on the inside that counts. Like the MX300, the MX500 is built on IMFT's 3D TLC NAND, but this time it's stacked 64 layers high instead of a mere 32. And a Silicon Motion chip has displaced the Marvell controller which ran the show before. More on that in a second. The MX500 is available in 250-GB, 500-GB, 1-TB, and 2-TB capacities. We've got the 500-GB and 1-TB models on hand to play with.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

De-lidding and Speed-binning Explained

Overclockers UK, based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, invited us down to investigate their de-lidding and speed-binning process. We spent a day working alongside Ian 8-Pack Parry, world-renowned overclocking guru, and the OcUK Tech Labs Team to witness the procedure first hand.

Read full article @ Vortez

Deepcool Quadstellar ATX Chassis Review

Deepcool’s successor to the its massive Tristellar Mini-ITX case, appropriately named the Quadstellar due to its four separate component compartments, is a unique beast in every sense of those words (both unique and beast). Measuring 483 x 493 x 538mm (W x H x D) and tipping the scales at almost 34lbs empty, the word "beast" definitely suits this chassis.

The four-lobed compartmentalized design of this case is unlike any computer chassis you've ever seen before, which is why "unique" is such a fitting description.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Dell Latitude 7490 review: Check out that battery life

Dell's been busy updating its collection of laptops, and the Latitude 7000-series — primarily suited for business folks — has not gone untouched. However, the new 14-inch Latitude 7490, the refreshed version of the 7480, holds onto many of the same attributes, receiving most notably eighth-gen Intel Core processors (CPU), a low power panel option, and an "Active Steering" antenna for better Wi-Fi reception.

This is undoubtedly a laptop with a high build quality and the durability needed to withstand time in the field, and thanks to decent performance and remarkable battery life, it remains a smart choice in the business arena.

Read full article @ Windows Central

EK-MLC Phoenix 360 Review

The MLC Phoenix from EKWB offers custom liquid-cooling performance with the plug-and-play functionality of a closed-loop cooler. Utilizing their QDC fitting, this modular unit overcomes one of the biggest hurdles for proper liquid cooling, which is building it all yourself. It's so easy even a noob can do it. Well, if they can afford it, that is.

EKWB is a watercooling juggernaut that started as just a man's simple idea. Cut to the present and, well, you could say they are one of the top manufacturers of liquid-cooling PC components. They have earned numerous awards and gained an exceptionally large following thanks in part due to exceptional quality and attention to detail. Other than a few hiccups along the way, EKWB has been wildly successful and now looks to bring custom watercooling to even the most hesitant users with the EK-MLC Phoenix, which replaces the now EOL Predator series.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Far Cry 5 Benchmarked: 50 GPUs Tested

To play Far Cry 5, Ubisoft recommends that you have a Core i7-4770 or Ryzen 5 1600 processor along with a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290X -- fairly heavy recommendations. Benchmarking the game has been made easy by its built-in benchmark which appears to do a good job of replicating the kind of performance you can expect to see when playing the game.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Far Cry 5 Review

The bulk of Far Cry 5 feels like gonzo camping trip that permeates the rest of the game. Yes, people are being kidnapped, tortured, and brainwashed, but in-between fighting to liberate the residents of Hope County from this b-horror movie plot, I also spent plenty of time skydiving, swimming, hiking, hunting, fishing, and rampaging through cedar forests on 4-wheelers at night like an idiot.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Far Cry 5 Review: Rocket's red glare

My favorite moments in Far Cry 5 are quiet. Just me and my dog Boomer, wandering through the morning fog as it sprawls across fields of dry grass and scrub brush, a nearby brook and some crowing birds the only complement to my own footfalls. It’s in these moments I can really sit and appreciate the majesty of Ubisoft’s world, this faux-Montana with its soaring mountains, its golden farmlands and sleepy waterways, its hyper-aggressive wildlife.It’s almost enough to make you forget about everything that’s gone wrong, here.

Far Cry 5 is caught up in all sorts of discussions I’ve no doubt it didn’t want to be caught up in. “What responsibility, if any, do games have to reflect societal concerns?” “Why are big-budget games so afraid of saying anything about anything, and how can we fix it?” And so on.

Read full article @ PC World

FireFox Looks to Stop Cryptojackers in Your Browser

FireFox is getting on board with an iniative already set forth by Chrome Browser, and that is to stop hackers from using your computer for unauthorized crypto-mining. Mozilla did also tell Bleeping Computer that it was doing some domain level blocking of cryptojackers that it had not previously publicly identified.

This "exploring" on the part of Mozilla could mean one of two things. The first would be if Firefox would start throttling JavaScript "workers" executed in background tabs, similar to the method the Chrome team recently took to deal with cryptojackers.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Fitbit Versa Review: A stylish smartwatch at the right price

When Fitbit launched its first true smartwatch last year, it had something to prove. The company had just bought beloved smartwatch pioneer Pebble, and up till then had struggled to produce a wearable with a proper operating system. So it's no surprise that the Ionic was stuffed full of features. It not only tracks a comprehensive range of fitness metrics and provides onscreen workout tutorials, but also stores your music, streams to Bluetooth headphones, runs third-party apps and makes contactless payments. It even has a blood-oxygen sensor just waiting for the company to turn it on (but right now is completely useless).

It's also not a surprise, then, that the Ionic wasn't cheap. While $300 isn't much compared to the Apple Watch and Samsung's Gear Sport, it might put off people who are fitness novices looking for a simpler device. The Ionic also didn't look like a regular watch, thanks to its hexagonal design that screams "Fitbit."

Read full article @ Engadget

HAVIT HV-KB395L Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Back in October of 2017, we looked at a mechanical gaming keyboard from a company that we hadn't really heard of before, HAVIT. Now we are in the spring of 2018 and have in our possession another mechanical keyboard from HAVIT, this time with a bit of a twist. The HV-KB395L is a low-profile mechanical keyboard that utilizes Kalih PG1350 low-profile Blue switches, resulting in a height of just 22.5mm. Add in some RGB lighting and we think the HV-KB395L might just be a winner. Let's see if our initial observations turn out to be accurate.

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Intel SSD DC P4510 NVMe PCIe Review

The successor to the Intel SSD DC P4500 series, the Intel SSD DC P4510 series, was first released to Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in August 2017 and is now widely available. Intel updated this enterprise drive series by using the latest 64-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory and optimized the firmware for the controller to work in unison with the changes. Luckily for Intel, no controller change was needed. Getting the firmware right is critical on enterprise drives where reliability, endurance, latency and throughout all equally matter.

By moving over to 64-layer TLC 3D TLC NAND Flash memory, Intel was able to able to increase drive capacities and performance. The Intel SSD DC P4510 is available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities. To get the maximum storage density for this series, Intel went with the U.2 2.5″ 15mm form factor on the PCIe 3.1 x4 interface with NVMe 1.2 certification. There are U.2 ports available on recently released high-end desktop motherboards and servers, but you can also purchase M.2 adapters that will allow you to run a U.2 drive over an open PCI Express slot. The P4510 Series enables up to four times more terabytes per server and delivers up to 10 times better random read latency at 99.99 percent quality of service than previous generations. Intel will be bringing out drives in this series using the new Enterprise and Datacenter SSD Form Factor (EDSFF) 1U Long “ruler” and 1U short form factors later in the year.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

LanReel Review

For anyone unaware, when you go to a typical LAN party one of the things you need to bring along with your PC is an ethernet cable. The length of the cable depends on where your seat is and where the switch is located but most events just recommend bringing a 25-foot cable. Any cable will get the job done but you want to be able to spot it and you want to be able to pack it up quickly when the event is over. For me I use bring orange cables for both my wife and I so they stand out at the switch and then I just use Velcro cable wraps on the cable to keep it all bundled up. This gets the job done and helps maintain my cable, but it isn’t the fastest to pack up at the end. I do have to take my time winding it up to prevent damage and to make sure next LAN I don’t have a mess. Well a while back a good friend of ours Matt who you might know better as Vector from PDXLAN introduced me to Nick aka Vaelin who has been to PDX events from the beginning. Long story short, he has designed a solution to all of this in what he calls the LanReel. It is a 25-foot network cable that can quickly be spooled back up and packed away in your LANbag. He sent one over and I’ve been playing with it for a little while now, today I wanted to talk a little more about it and show everyone what it is all about.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

MSI Immerse GH60 Gaming Headset Review

Today we're taking a look at the MSI Immerse GH60, a no-frills stereo gaming headset that features 50mm Neodymium drivers in each ear cup with 20 Hz ~ 40 kHz frequency response and 32 Ohm impedance, a built-in unidirectional microphone, and inline volume control.

Featuring 50 mm Neodymium driver units with Hi-Res certification, the Immerse GH60 is designed to provide clarity of sound during work chat sessions, music listening or your favorite games.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

NVIDIA VOLTA's TITAN V DX12 Performance Efficiency

Last week we evaluated the $3,000 NVIDIA TITAN V in thirteen games at 1440p and 4K for a full gaming performance evaluation. In that evaluation we found the NVIDIA TITAN V to perform between 30-40% faster than the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in today’s games at either resolution. The gains were real, massive, and constituted a greatly improved gameplay experience.

In that evaluation we used a mix of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan API’s to show the best overall picture of performance in games. NVIDIA TITAN V is based on a new architecture named Volta which supersedes the Pascal architecture which GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is based on. Given this information we wanted to find out if NVIDIA TITAN V using the new Volta architecture is in anyway shape or form more efficient at DX12 performance versus Pascal architecture.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Philips Brilliance 328P6AUBREB 31.5in QHD Monitor Review

The USB Type C connection seems like the jack of all trades, with enough bandwidth available for a 4K screen, and enough power to drive a reasonably sized one too. But USB-C doesn’t transfer enough power for a large screen, so the connection hasn’t found favour with desktop monitors. Nevertheless, there are potential benefits of USB-C even here. The Philips Brilliance 328P6AUBREB is our first look at USB-C in a hefty desktop guise.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Plasma 5.12 - 28 Days Later

Zombies? Nah, Linux. I've written a short review of the KDE Plasma 5.12.2 desktop environment, focusing on fixes and improvements from the baseline LTS image, new and hot stuff in the Plasma world, lingering problems and regressions, other observations, and more. Enjoy.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

Sea of Thieves Xbox One Review: Fun is in the journey, not the destination

Sea of Thieves establishes a framework for promising concepts, yet fails to deliver on its true potential.

Backed by four years of development at esteemed UK studio, Rare, Sea of Thieves has been shaping up as one of Microsoft's most promising new franchises. Shipping wannabe pirates on daring adventures across the seas, it proposes unique ideas not only with the premise but also its approach to gameplay.

After spending a couple dozen hours sailing the Sea of Thieves, you'll build a story worth telling. The game establishes some engaging concepts, making for a fresh and most importantly, fun take on shared-world multiplayer.

Read full article @ Windows Central

The best Intel X299 motherboards

More than half a year ago, Intel introduced their Core-X processors and the accompanying X299 chip set in the summer of 2017. Since then we've done the necessary round-ups and reviews, but if you're buying a Intel high-end processor, which X299 motherboard should you get? For those who don't have time to backtrack through all of our old reviews, this article lists the best choices for those looking for a motherboard for an Intel Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processor.

Intel's high-end platform utilizes socket 2066, which can be found on motherboards with the X299 chipset. These X299 motherboards are characterised by many connection options, with many pci-e and memory slots. How much you can use depends on the processor you choose. The X299 chipset does not have a built-in usb 3.1 controller, so for that functionality manufacturers use additional chips, which drive up the price. This also applies to Thunderbolt 3.0: apart from a few exceptions, this interface is not found at all on X299 motherboards.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info