Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion Review
Alienware 15 R4 Review
AOC X24P1 Review
ASUS ROG Gladius II Origin Mouse Review
Asus ROG Strix X370-I Gaming Review
ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme Motherboard Review
AZIO Retro Classic Elwood Keyboard Review
BACtrack C8 Police-Grade Portable Breathalyzer Review
Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M TUF Gaming Edition Review
Corsair AX1600i 1600W Power Supply Review
EVGA 650 B3 PSU Review
Falcon Northwest Tiki System Review
HP EliteBook 840 And 830 G5 Review
HyperX Pulsefire Surge RGB Gaming Mouse Review
Intel Core i7-8086K Processor Review
Seagate Ironwolf 6TB NAS Hard Drive Review
Synology DS1618+ 6-Bay High-Performance NAS Review
Team Group Vulcan Gaming DDR4 3200 MHz TUF Edition Review
Tempest 4000 (PS4) Review
ViewSonic VP3881 38" Curved HDR Monitor Review

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion Review

Being one of the most famous animated TV shows of recent times, the Adventure Time series received several video game adaptations which are, for the most part, pretty much hit and miss. A true shame, considering some of the series’ staples such as its humorous tone and its “adventuring” theme. After years of suffering, Adventure Time fans now have the game they deserve, Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion, an enjoyable role-playing which manages to capture the series’ spirit properly, despite some issues here and there which damage the experience a bit.

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion stars Finn and Jake as they set out to solve the mystery behind the flood of The Land of Ooo. Following a night of their usual fun together with BMO, the duo wakes up to find the whole land flooded. Their first step is to ask the Ice King about the matter, and it seems like he is indeed the one behind everything, as he has lost his crown. Setting out to recover the missing item, Finn, Jake, and later on, BMO and Marceline will find themselves involved in a struggle against pirates, who are going beyond the simple conquering of the kingdoms but are also influencing their inhabitants.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Alienware 15 R4 Review

Gaming laptops are a balance between power and portability. The Alienware 15 R4 leans towards the former, with an overclocked, full-size GPU that can tear through high-level gaming and output it on a bright, G-Sync display. Gaming laptops are always a balance between power and portability. The Alienware 15 R4 ($1,299.99 to start, $1,849.99 as tested) leans towards the former, with an overclocked, full-size Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU that can tear through high-level gaming and deliver it on a bright, G-Sync display. It’s bulky, but that space also makes it easy to upgrade and allows for deep key travel. But on productivity scores, its 8th Gen Core i7 processor fell behind competitive systems, which may give some users pause.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

AOC X24P1 Review

Isn't it a shame that 1080p has become the de facto standard for PC displays? The 16:9 resolution may favour some forms of multimedia, but it isn't ideal for productivity, where extra vertical space can make all the difference. I've spent the past week working with the AOC X24P1, a 24in IPS panel offering a 16:10 WUXGA resolution, and after just a short space of time, I'm left wondering why I made do with 1,920x1,080 for so many years.

Aimed primarily at business users, the X24P1 is priced at around £220 inc. VAT and enhances everyday work through a 1,920x1,200 resolution. It doesn't sound like much of a shift - what's an extra 120 vertical pixels between friends? - but in practise the 11 per cent increase in on-screen real estate makes a noticeable difference. There's less scrolling involved when browsing the web, you can see more of your spreadsheets, and the 16:10 aspect ratio makes implicit sense for practically every task other than watching movies. I'd go as far as to say that 3:2 is an even better choice, but good luck finding such an option at this price point.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASUS ROG Gladius II Origin Mouse Review

AUUS’s Republic of Gamers peripheral series has recently released their second iteration to the Gladius Origin mouse. Sticking with the original physical characteristics, ASUS has revamped the optical sensor to a staggering 12000 DPI range, granting serious accuracy on all high end monitors. Key highlights of this product not only lays within the engineering of the drivers, but the ability of physically replacing the micro switches (which was also a popular option in the first generation). Of course it would not be a ROG product without a beautiful lighting presentation...

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Asus ROG Strix X370-I Gaming Review

X470 availability does not mean we get to neglect other platforms within the Ryzen multiverse. Do innovation and design twists put Asus's Mini-ITX X370 ahead of the rest? The Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix X370-I Gaming picks up where a preceding motherboard, the Biostar X370 GTN left off. While that board wasn't able to leverage the strengths of AMD's X-Series chipset (to the point were B350 would have been a better choice), the ROG Strix X370-I leverages the chipset's high speed I/O for big-board features like M.2. Add some serious overclocking capability, and you're looking at a tremendously powerful, yet amazingly small, platform for your AM4 processor.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme Motherboard Review

There are only a handful of motherboards for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors currently available, with each of them having a clear marketing focus. We recently reviewed two of them, and most motherboards in this segment target the marketing towards professionals and gamers. In this review we are having a look at a board targeted to the niche market of extreme overclockers - the ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme.

The ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme is an Extended ATX (E-ATX) motherboard based on AMD's X399 chipset with the currently longest and most impressive list of features amongst Ryzen Threadripper motherboards. As a matter of fact, the list of features is so long that feels as if ASUS's engineers used this design as a project to find out just how many things they can fit on an E-ATX PCB. Some of these features are unique and with usefulness limited to just extreme overclocking, such as liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling hardware support. The current retail price of the ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme at the time of this review is $507, making it by far the most expensive Ryzen Threadripper motherboard currently available, with ASUS clearly hoping to entice the most demanding enthusiasts and overclockers who are seeking the very best regardless of the price tag.

Read full article @ Anandtech

AZIO Retro Classic Elwood Keyboard Review

AZIO started this whole retro keyboard thing back in 2016 with the MK Retro keyboard. A year later they took things even further with the Retro Classic, which added a real metal frame and different surface materials to truly give it that classic typewriter look and feel. This year AZIO has updated the keyboard once again, first they have added Bluetooth functionality as well as making the keyboard compatible with both PC and Mac systems. Next we have a new color-design which is called Elwood. It features a metal frame around the keyboard with the top-plate being made of real wood. Of course you have those iconic circular keycaps and mechanical key switches as well. Let’s take a look at this truly unique keyboard…

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

BACtrack C8 Police-Grade Portable Breathalyzer Review

A few weeks back we were at a press event and saw the BACtrack display for their new C8 police-grade breathalyzer device that features something they call ZeroLine. BACtrack is the #1 seller of breathalyzers in North America and was founded in 2001. Their new C8 builds on their past expertise by adding ZeroLine, which gives you an estimate of when you'll be sober. Turns out it might be longer than you think.

Read full article @ Bigbruin.com

Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M TUF Gaming Edition Review

At Computex 2018, Asus and several other companies announced the TUF Gaming Alliance, a collection of components (from motherboards and cases to coolers and power supplies) designed to work together--and look good doing it. We’ve already highlighted a collection of those components used in the Asus TUF Gaming Alliance component build, including two Cooler Master MasterAir heatpipe cooling towers: the MA620P, and the smaller MA410M that we're looking at here.

Of those two (both of which are priced at about $60), this model is far more interesting. Even though it happens to carry the trusty, budget MA410 moniker of other recent models, the MA410M TUF Edition comes out swinging with striking visuals. But it follows up its good looks with excellent performance, besting its larger sibling to truly stand out. Those looking for a fairly compact tower cooler with RGB bling should strap this model to their short list.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Corsair AX1600i 1600W Power Supply Review

Corsair is known in enthusiast circles as a supplier of high performance memory and has risen to become one of the most talked about power supply brands around. Corsair was initially able to establish a presence in such a short time through the use of quality OEM’s (Seasonic and CWT), rigorous standards, and excellent support. Since its entrance into the PSU field, it has established a number of lines of power supplies of varying quality to address (and overlap) just about every market segment. Today, Corsair brings us another product from their AXi line; the flagship AX1600i ( CP-9020087-NA ). This power supply is once more produced by Flextronics.

Flextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider, which makes it a bit atypical from the general consumer SMPS OEM, founded in 1969 and headquartered in Singapore. Flextronics provides a wide range of manufacturing, supply chain management and procurement, logistical support, and technical support services for industries ranging from automotive, to medical, to consumer electronic, and industrial component production. Some of its more familiar customers that it provides manufacturing services, or outright production for are familiar to many users including Lenovo, Lego Group, Microsoft, RIM, LG, SUN, HP, Kodak, Verizon, Amazon, Samsung, Siemens, Apple, and many more. Flextronics subsidiary FlexPower, was founded in 2005 and Flextronics claims that following the acquisition of Friwo and Coldwatt, plus internal growth and development that it is now the "4th largest power supply company in the world." However, its production of products for the consumer SMPS market is still rather limited with Corsair bringing the first product from Flextronics/FlexPower to the enthusiast we have seen to date.

Read full article @ HardOCP

EVGA 650 B3 PSU Review

EVGA's 650 B3 power supply is based on an older Super Flower platform that offers good overall performance. Its only real weakness surfaces during our efficiency benchmarks: the 650 B3 offers mere 80 PLUS Bronze and ETA-A- certifications. Naturally, that means it gets hotter than higher-efficiency models and consequently isn't one of the quietest 650W PSUs we've tested. So why does it bear a similar price tag as 80 PLUS Gold-rated competitors like Corsair's TX650M? Good question. Instead of selling for $75, the 650 B3 should really be in the $60 to $65 range. Still, thanks to high overall performance, it achieves a fair value score after completing our suite of benchmarks.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Falcon Northwest Tiki System Review

Looking back through the PC Perspective archives as I prepared for this review, I was shocked to find weve never actually tested a Falcon Northwest Tiki system. Since its introduction in 2012, the Tiki has been a mainstay at conventions like CES, providing a compact solution for manufacturers to provide demos of their hardware and software.
With a base milled out of solid aluminum and GPU cut out window, the Tiki provides modest design flair while still remaining relatively tame and "adult-like" compared to many premium gaming PC options.

The Tiki is available with three different CPU platforms. Users have their pick from Intel X370 and X299, and even X470 platforms based around AMD’s Ryzen CPUs. It’s great to see system builders like Falcon Northwest embracing Ryzen CPUs in some of their flagship models like the Tiki.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

HP EliteBook 840 And 830 G5 Review

Visually, it's easy to see the difference from last year's G4 model to this year's G5. The previous iteration employed a magnesium alloy and plastic clam-shell, whereas the new G5 sports a solid machined aluminum chassis.

Their aluminum exterior gives the EliteBook a bold look, but it's not the only feature update made to this successful HP business class ultrabook line.

Read full article @ HotHardware

HyperX Pulsefire Surge RGB Gaming Mouse Review

What we are about to see in this review stems from a product we looked at back in April of last year, when we got up close and personal with the Pulsefire FPS. What we found then was a mouse that was more than capable of handling the demands of any FPS gamer, but if you were looking for software, fancy lighting, or a high-cost mouse, it was not for you. While we did have a couple of talking points to discuss at the end of that review, they were not deal breakers, and the bottom line is that we then recommended the mouse, and we still would today as well.

That history is what took HyperX back to the drawing board, to attempt to one-up themselves and deliver a mouse that covered all of the features that the masses desire. It takes on changes not only in design aesthetically, but it has also gotten a complete reworking of the interior. While components may be similar, there is not one bit of this latest mouse that is identical in any way to the Pulsefire FPS. That says a lot about HyperX and what they are trying to accomplish. They are listening to those who will voice their opinion, and have gone to the table to develop a new product that carries the Pulsefire name, yet is leaps and bounds better than what we saw initially.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Intel Core i7-8086K Processor Review

Intel recently celebrated 40 years of the x86 instruction set by releasing the 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8086K processor and it can be picked up for $389.00 shipped. Intel introduced the first x86 series processor on June 8, 1978 with the 8086 microprocessor and changed the modern world. The 8086 was a screamer back in the day as it was the first 16-bit processor and came clocked at 5 MHz and that was enough horsepower for personal computing to take off. What makes the Core i7-8086K 6-core, 12-thread processor special is that it just happens to be Intel’s first processor to reach 5GHz speeds straight out of the box with no overclocking needed. It took 40 years, but we have finally made it from 5 MHz to 5 GHz!

Our friends over at Intel hooked us up with an Intel Core i7-8086K processor for testing, but rather than being the sweet retail boxed processor we got an Intel Engineering Sample (ES) processor. The real limited edition retail boxed processor comes with some really sweet commemorative goodies – like a a certificate of authenticity and a signed note from Intel’s former CEO Brian Krzanich. This really bumps up the collector item status, but we learned that the ‘limited edition’ run is supposedly going to churn out 50,000 of these processors.

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Seagate Ironwolf 6TB NAS Hard Drive Review

Today we’re reviewing an item that has gotten very little love on the site, something we all have and use but frankly take for granted all the time. The hard drive has been somewhat forgotten as most people mention how its an out of date technology and that NAND is the future, well that still isn’t true and probably won’t be for another few years especially in the high capacity side.

Today we will be taking a look one of Seagate’s Ironwolf drives which are NAS drives used ideally for network attached storage systems, and aim for very fast sequential performance with models from 2TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 10TB capacities with all of them rotating at 7,200 RPM which is much faster than the competitor WD Red drives which are only 5,400RPM and 3.5 inch format. The 6 TB, 8 TB, and 10 TB models have 256 MB cache memory, while the 2 TB and 4 TB models have 128 Mb of cache RAM.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Synology DS1618+ 6-Bay High-Performance NAS Review

The DS1618+’s base is one of Intel’s Atom C3538 quad-core processors with a 2.1GHz clock speed. The system has two DD4 SO-DIMM slots of which one is populated with a 4GB module. The maximum memory support is 32GB through two 16GB modules. We see here, that this is a well-performing unit.

Naturally, the processor features hardware-based EAS-Ni encryption. A must these days, at least as soon as we enter the SMB market.

The connection options aren’t without either. To start with, we get four Gigabit Ethernet ports which can be combined for extra throughput or failover protection. Further, the DS1618+ has three USB 3.0 ports and two eSATA ports.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Team Group Vulcan Gaming DDR4 3200 MHz TUF Edition Review

Team Group is one of those companies that I think is really shaking up the memory market right now, having released many different products with different designs on a continual basis that help keep new SKUs on store shelves by giving us something new to get excited about between regular platform launches from both AMD and Intel. I've taken a look at quite a few of their DDR4 products and have been impressed by each and every one.

This time around, we've got a Vulcan Gaming DDR4 set, a 3200 MHz kit with two 8 GB sticks and 16-18-18-38 timings. The Vulcan Gaming kits are sets that have been given specific treatments to match specific boards, with the set I have here ready for ASUS TUF motherboards. The heatspreader takes the theme of those ASUS boards and matches it top-to-bottom, giving these sticks a look that completes the visual appearance of your ASUS TUF build in a way most others simply want to.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Tempest 4000 (PS4) Review

Tempest 4000’s sudden arrival was something that caught me off-guard, even as someone that follows Jeff Minter’s llama-centric antics on Twitter. This updated release of his signature game had been coming in and out of the gaming news after first being announced at 2017’s Gamescom conference. His history with Atari had been rather strange after TxK came out on Vita. From that point on, Jeff Minter’s work with the Tempest project seemed like it was done forever until that press conference last August. Now nearly a year after its first unveiling to the public, Tempest 4000 has finally arrived on Sony and Microsoft’s home consoles as well as Windows PC.

Read full article @ Wccftech

ViewSonic VP3881 38" Curved HDR Monitor Review

ViewSonic’s VP3881 is a 38-inch ultra-wide with a 2300R curve, 3840x1600 resolution and HDR10. Color is sRGB, but this monitor manages to create a decent approximation of DCI-P3 (which offers a wider color gamut than sRGB). The main draw here is factory-certified color accuracy. If you operate in the sRGB or Rec.709 realm, you can simply unpack this monitor and get to work - no calibration necessary.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware