Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Asus' RT-AC1900P wireless router reviewed
Core i7-7800X vs. 7700K, 6 or 4 Cores for Gaming?
Debian 9 Stretch - Not by a long stretch
EWin Racing Flash Series XL Gaming Chair Review
HP SSD S700 Solid State Drive Review
Intel Core i7-7740X Kaby Lake-X Review
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet (2nd Gen) Review: A Nimble, Business-Class 2-in-1 Convertible
MSI Announces the X299 XPower Gaming AC Motherboard: Five M.2 Slots
MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z 11 GB
Philips BDM4350UC 43in 4k IPS Monitor Review
ROCCAT Nyth Gaming Mouse Review
Sizing Up Servers: Intel's Skylake-SP Xeon versus AMD's EPYC 7000 - The Server CPU Battle of the Decade?
Streacom FC8 Alpha ITX Case Review
TP-Link LB130 WiFi LED Bulb with RGB
VIVO CASE-V08 Review
Windows Phone 8.1 Reaches End of Official Support & The Close of a Very Short Era

Asus' RT-AC1900P wireless router reviewed

Asus' RT-AC1900P carries on the legacy of the company's popular RT-N66U "Dark Knight" router. This time around, the unit comes armed with an 802.11ac radio for faster performance on the 5GHz band. We fired up this router in our crowded wireless airspace to see whether it can stand above the rest.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

Core i7-7800X vs. 7700K, 6 or 4 Cores for Gaming?

Although we consider the Ryzen 5 1600 to be the sweet spot for building a new high-end gaming rig, many of you interested in going Intel want to know whether it makes more sense to buy the Core i7-7700K or the new 7800X?

There's just a ~$70 difference between the two, but the older chip is higher clocked, and the newer CPU gets you two extra cores and access to Intel's latest desktop platform.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Debian 9 Stretch - Not by a long stretch

Today, our karma takes a 180-degree turn (in a spin 1 world that is). For we have a negative review of Debian 9 Stretch Cinnamon and Gnome editions, with limited testing restricted to a short live session only, due to severe problems with Wireless network connectivity. There.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

EWin Racing Flash Series XL Gaming Chair Review

Extra-large gaming chairs may not be widely available currently but thanks to manufacturers like EWin Racing you have a large number of available models with various color combinations to pick from their feature-rich Flash Series XL line.

Read full article @ NikKTech

HP SSD S700 Solid State Drive Review

HP promises 560 MB/s read and 515 MB/s write speeds from SSD S700, which utilizing 3D NAND technology to deliver impressive storage density and reliability. Adding to its appeal is the cost of solid state drive technology, which has doubled its storage capacity per dollar from just one year ago. In this article for Benchmark Reviews, we test the HP SSD S700 (2.5″ 500GB model 2DP99AA#ABC) against other solid state drive competition.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Intel Core i7-7740X Kaby Lake-X Review

Kaby Lake-X brings Intel's latest microrchitecture to the X299 platform with a very Core i7-7700K-like experience. Last month, Intel's Skylake-X processors debuted at lower price points than we might have expected, given the company's previous high-end desktop CPU launches. The new chips also feature hefty core counts, higher Turbo Boost frequencies, a revamped implementation of Turbo Boost Max 3.0, a realigned cache hierarchy, and a new mesh topology. If you haven't read our review yet, check out Intel Core i9-7900X Review: Meet Skylake-X.
Interestingly, the seven new Skylake-X models are accompanied by two quad-core Kaby Lake-X SKUs. In the past, Intel's entire HEDT portfolio lagged at least a generation behind the mainstream offerings. But Kaby Lake-X puts Intel's most modern architecture in the LGA 2066 interface.
It's only unfortunate that this attempt at rejuvenating the high-end desktop leads to a confusing mix of features on the X299 platform, many of which Kaby Lake-X simply does not support. Fewer PCIe lanes and a dual-channel memory controller are an obvious mismatch with expensive LGA 2066-equipped motherboards, and that's bound to create a dubious value proposition.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet (2nd Gen) Review: A Nimble, Business-Class 2-in-1 Convertible

There is a new-found push to market, lightweight 2-in-1 devices as productivity tools for business-savvy road warriors. That has occasionally been an angle, though for the most part, the appeal of these convertible systems has largely been their ability to function as both a tablet and a general purpose laptop for lightweight computing or media consumption duties. There have been previous attempts to expand the 2-in-1 category into the business market, and that is where Lenovo's new ThinkPad Tablet X1 Tablet fits in.

What we have in for review is Lenovo's second generation ThinkPad X1 Tablet for 2017...

Read full article @ HotHardware

MSI Announces the X299 XPower Gaming AC Motherboard: Five M.2 Slots

This week MSI has announced a new X299 motherboard: the MSI X299 XPOWER GAMING AC. This is designed as a flagship motherboard for MSIs X299 range, and aims to combine gaming features and performance with the overclocking pedigree of their XPower family from previous generations. 

One thing that may jump out is MSI is adjusting its aesthetic scheme and returning back to a more neutral black on the XPower, a deviation from the recent generations where the XPower would get a titanium silver treatment (or even older generations of XPower that were yellow). The theme agnostic color choice is due to the prevalence of RGB LEDs, found on both the “reactor” design of the chipset heatsink as well as above the I/O area on the shroud. The basic premise is that having customizable RGB LEDs should allow the motherboard to fit into more customized and themed builds, whereas some of the previous color designs may have pigeon-holed the design of systems. To contrast the dark color scheme, MSI has used their branded Steel Armor protective coverings for the x16 PCIe slots, as well as the DIMM slots and the U.2 connector. 

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z 11 GB

Lightning is MSI's flagship card for the GTX 1080 Ti Series. Our review of the Lightning Z, which is the highest clocked variant, confirms it has the best cooler of all GTX 1080 Tis; delivering lowest temperatures and lowest noise at the same time. The Lightning Z is also the fastest GTX 1080 Ti we ever tested, but isn't exactly cheap at $999.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Philips BDM4350UC 43in 4k IPS Monitor Review

Size matters, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. It’s particularly important with 4K screens. Whilst the pixel count gives you bragging rights in itself, viewing 4K on anything smaller than a 27in screen beggars the point a little, as it will be hard to make out the detail compared to the next resolution down. In fact, the larger the better. So how about a 43in 4K screen instead? This is what Philips has on offer with the BDM4350UC.

Read full article @ KitGuru

ROCCAT Nyth Gaming Mouse Review

MMO and MOBA games are not going anywhere and gamers in these genres are some of the most competitive. With that many peripheral makers have made specific products for these gamers. We’ve already taken a look at the Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB and the SteelSeries Rival 500 which are both designed with MMO and MOBA gamers in mind. Today we have another entry into that field, the ROCCAT Nyth. The Nyth is very unique as it has twelve, yes twelve thumb buttons, hotswappable sidegrips, and a 12,000 DPI laser sensor. Those twelve thumb buttons are actually modular so you can arrange them how you like. ROCCAT includes extra buttons and you can even 3D-print your own buttons. Can this be the ultimate mouse for MMO and MOBA gamers? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Sizing Up Servers: Intel's Skylake-SP Xeon versus AMD's EPYC 7000 - The Server CPU Battle of the Decade?

This morning kicks off a very interesting time in the world of server-grade CPUs. Officially launching today is Intels latest generation of Xeon processors, based on the "Skylake-SP" architecture. Part of Intels new Xeon Scalable Processor family, the "Purley" 100-series processors incorporate all of Intels latest CPU and network fabric technology, not to mention a very large number of cores.

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks back AMD soft-launched their new EPYC 7000 series processors. Based on the companys Zen architecture and scaled up to server-grade I/O and core counts, EPYC represents an epic achievement for AMD, once again putting them into the running for competitive, high-performance server CPUs after nearly half a decade gone. EPYC processors have begun shipping, and just in time for todays Xeon launch, we also have EPYC hardware in the lab to test.

Todays launch is a situation that neither company has been in for quite a while. Intel hasnt had serious competition in years, and AMD hasnt been able to compete. As a result, both companies are taking the others actions very seriously.

In fact we could go on for much longer than our quip above in describing the rising tension at the headquarters of AMD and Intel. For the first time in 6 years (!), a credible alternative is available for the newly launched Xeon. Indeed, the new Xeon "Skylake-SP" is launching today, and the yardstick for it is not the previous Xeon (E5 version 4), but rather AMDs spanking new EPYC server CPU. Both CPUs are without a doubt very different: micro-architecture, ISA extentions, memory subsystem, node topology... you name it. The end result is that once again we have the thrilling task of finding out how the processors compare and which applications their various trade-offs make sense.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Streacom FC8 Alpha ITX Case Review

Today we test on OCinside.de the new Streacom FC8 Alpha Mini-ITX case and the Streacom Nano160 PSU 160 Watt power supply. The Streacom FC8 is an upper-class passive cooled aluminum ITX case, with which you can build an excellent fanless Office PC or even gaming system without any fan. But of course, the most sensible application would be a silent HTPC for the living room. However, there are also downsides you should know before you buy. We have tested the ITX chassis along with Nano PSU, show some thermal images, as well as the power supply power consumption and have also created a step by step silent HTPC guide to build a fanless PC.

Read full article @ OCInside.de

TP-Link LB130 WiFi LED Bulb with RGB

The idea of a smart home really started to pick up in the late 90’s but it really wasn’t until recently when wireless technology got small enough to be integrated into various devices around your house. The whole idea that every device and part of your house would be wired together was expensive and took a lot of work. Recently though you start to see lots of devices come with wireless integration, hell even my humidifier connects to my wireless network. But the whole idea really comes together when LEDs, wireless, and smartphone all come together. That is why you are starting to see new lightbulbs that can be controlled remotely that plug into standard light sockets. TP-Link has jumped on board with the whole idea and has a whole mix of smart home products. They sent over their LB130, a WiFi capable LED light bulb with fully integrated RGB lighting as well. So I’ve been messing around with today we are going to check out what it's about. Is the smart home finally here? Let's find out!

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

VIVO CASE-V08 Review

Like in the automotive world, it is common for high-end features that were only found on Cadillacs and Lincolns to trickle down to the mainstream, and computer cases are no different. In addition to the trend of fancy glass side and front panels, many cases now incorporate a cover over the power supply area. Both features were once only found on expensive cases, but manufacturers have found a way make these features available and affordable. The V08 offers style with purpose. It can handle motherboard form factors that range from a mini-ITX up to a full E-ATX. As with the CASE-V07, the fit and finish of the V-08 are at a quality level that you typically see from well-known case manufacturers. Sound levels are not really noticeable, and you do have space to add two more 120mm fans on top of the power supply cover if you want more air flow. There are filters to keep the dust out, and decent room to build a nice gaming rig, workstation, or just a daily driver. The VIVO CASE-V08 retails for $69.99, and for a case that can handle an E-ATX motherboard, liquid cooling, and comes with tempered front and side glass - you can't go wrong.

Read full article @ OCC

Windows Phone 8.1 Reaches End of Official Support & The Close of a Very Short Era

Microsoft has officially issued their final updates for the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system as they close a tumultuous chapter in the companies mobile efforts for smart phones. Now there are more unsupported handsets than there are of those still supported with Windows 10 Mobile. Where are we going from here?

Read full article @ WinSupersite