Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Alphacool Eiswolf GPX-N 1080Pro-M01 Review
AMD TR4 water cooling test: getting the max out of Threadripper
Cougar Immersa Pro Review
Crucial MX500 500 GB SSD Review
Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 56 Gaming OC 8G Review
Gigabyte Z370N WIFI Mini-ITX Coffee Lake Motherboard Review
Microsoft says pre Skylake chips will suffer badly from security patch
NZXT N7 Z370 motherboard pictured
NZXT N7-Z37XT Motherboard Review
PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds Gameplay And Performance Review: An Addictive Masterpiece
Samsung Notebook 7 Spin (2018) Revealed

Alphacool Eiswolf GPX-N 1080Pro-M01 Review

When it comes to the liquid cooling solutions, the Alphacool is not a new name. Based on their years of experience and expertise, the users can benefit from high-performance Cooling Solutions including their All-In-One and the All-In-One Connected cooling solutions not to mention the complete custom loop setup possibility. Their ideas are innovative and their expertise has allowed for far more industrial applications of their solutions than just the cooling setup for the PCs. They are also the OEM partners of the various brands including Fractal Design, Cooler Master, Be Quiet, Sapphire, Asus, Nocatech to name a few which speaks of their excellence in the design and development of the cooling solutions. Their Eisbaer, Eiswolf, Eiswand are a few products that are quite popular among the PC Enthusiasts.

The Alphacool has sent me their Eiswolf GPX-N 1080Pro-M01 graphics card cooler. This particular model is designed for the reference edition or founders edition version of the GTX 1080. With Eiswolf, the Alphacool has taken a different approach. It is not a full water block like what we see from the other water cooling companies. It is also different from the hybrid solutions being manufactured by the likes of the EVGA and MSI/Corsair. Alphacool has developed a completely new pump design to minimize the pump’s volume and increase performance. The result is their suction pump design being featured on the Eiswolf coolers. Through its suction principle, less turbulence is created in the water, allowing for a more even flow with less noise. It comes in multiple configurations like with 120mm radiator, 240mm radiator or solo version which does not have any radiator. The solo is intended for use with the Eisbaer series of the coolers or if the user already has a radiator with quick release fittings. The 120mm radiator is fully implemented in the copper which is another difference from the traditional CLCs in the market. It features 11/8mm size PVC hoses with standard g1/4 threading and standard compression fittings. It is from their ever-popular NexXxos series. I won’t be saying much here but in the closer look section of this content.

Read full article @ Enos Tech

AMD TR4 water cooling test: getting the max out of Threadripper

This year AMD is once again competitive at the top of the hardware range. Threadripper is a strong alternative on the high-end CPU market and the Vega GPUs give Nvidia a run for their money. There is a downside to so many cores at such a high clocking frequency, as you would expect, Threadripper can be quite hot-headed. As water cooling is not a luxury for high-end systems, we decided to test four different cooling systems with our Threadripper. We had a look at the custom water blocks by EM, Phanteks and XSPC as well as the ready-made Threadripper cooler by Enermax – the LiqTech TR4 360mm

Throughout the year we have tested many all-in-one water cooling systems, but this is the first time that we dive into the waters of the custom cooling components. A few years ago, we wrote a custom water cooling workshop article as building your own water cooling is not an easy task. Finding components that are compatible with each other and also with the chassis you have can be very daunting.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Cougar Immersa Pro Review

The $80 Cougar Immersa Pro is the successor to the well-known and well-liked Immersa, one of the most popular $50 gaming headsets on the market. Even though it looks and feels almost the same, it comes with its own sound card, an RGB lighting system, and bigger speaker drivers that are tuned quite differently than those of the original Immersa.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Crucial MX500 500 GB SSD Review

And let’s break the ice with the first review of this year with another new SSD series from Crucial. This time we have the MX500 which uses Micron’s new 2nd generation 64-layer NAND. This is physically 30% smaller than the first generation which allows the manufacturer to yield more die per wafer, which in turn reduces cost.

Thus the MX500 aims at Samsung’s 850 EVO series. At the first initial launch just a month ago, we only had the 1TB model available for purchase but as of today they have released 3 other sizes: 250GB, 500GB and 2TB. In our hands today we have the 500 GB variant.

Read full article @ Glob3trotters

Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 56 Gaming OC 8G Review

Do you build AMD's Vega 10 GPU into a beastly flagship or the most value-minded gaming card possible? Gigabyte started with the former and settled on the latter for its Radeon RX Vega 56 Gaming OC 8G.

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

Gigabyte Z370N WIFI Mini-ITX Coffee Lake Motherboard Review

We review and test the small yet agile Gigabyte Z370N WIFI motherboard, this Mini ITX Form Factor based measures just 17x17cm, yet is as fast as its bigger bethrens. We'll pair it with the new six-core Core i7 8700K. Will it perform as fast as the more expensive SKUs? Well, heck yeah.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Microsoft says pre Skylake chips will suffer badly from security patch

Microsoft and Intel seem to be at odds over whether the Spectre and Meltdown patches slow down machines significantly

Read full article @ Fudzilla

NZXT N7 Z370 motherboard pictured

We have few pictures of what seems to be NZXT's first desktop motherboard. The NZXT N7 Z370 would be available in multiple color variations (they might be sold separately). This motherboard would feature two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot and a pair of PCIe x4 interfaces. There are in total 8 USB ports on I/O bracket. 

Read full article @ VideoCardz.com

NZXT N7-Z37XT Motherboard Review

Case and cooling company NZXT shocks the world by releasing a motherboard. Can the firm stand up to established players?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds Gameplay And Performance Review: An Addictive Masterpiece

The mega-popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, aka PUBG, is finally here in full release form. With its time in the Steam Early Access easy-bake oven complete, the inspiring battle royal FPS game is now ready for mass retail consumption with an impressive new map, new weapons, vehicles and lots more.

Back in September we had a blast running, gunning and dying quite a bit, to show you how the game had integrated NVIDIA’s Shadowplay Highlight’s custom replay features. Now we're giving this masterpiece of mayhem the formal treatment with its own gameplay and performance review...

Read full article @ HotHardware

Samsung Notebook 7 Spin (2018) Revealed

The *Samsung Notebook 7 Spin (2018)* offers a 360-degree touchscreen; an Active Pen for quick and easy note-taking; as well as the power and performance for more efficient multi-tasking. Check it out here!

Read full article @ TechARP