Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

AMD Zen-based Hygon Dhyana CPUs start to appear
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev 2 Full-Tower Chassis Review
Cougar LX 500w Bronze Fully Modular Power Supply Review
Cyberpower Hyper Liquid GTX Custom Watercooled PC
GeForce GT 1030: The DDR4 Abomination Benchmarked
ID-Cooling Chromaflow 240 CPU Cooler Review
Noctua NF-P12 Redux (1700 PWM, 1300 PWM, 1300, 900) Cooling Fans Review
Raspberry Pi 3 Review
Security nonsense: KDE Dolphin does not run as root - Fix
Xtorm Limitless 10.000mAh Waterproof Power Bank Review

AMD Zen-based Hygon Dhyana CPUs start to appear

China-based Hygon branded chips are said to be nearly identical to the AMD EPYC range. Hygon Dhyana CPUs, which are said to be almost identical to those from AMD's EPYC range, are now starting to become available in China. AMD has had to duck and dive a little to satisfy the legalities of the x86 cross-licensing agreement and US government policy. Now that things seem to have lined up favourably, AMD could enjoy significant royalty payments from its Chinese partners in the not too distant future.

Back in 2015, the US government blocked Intel from selling Xeon processors to China. The reasoning was that China was using these processors in its nuclear programs and other industries that could benefit its military. Since that time, the US has blocked strategic acquisitions and mergers that Chinese companies have attempted, in order to develop their own similar chips. Thus AMD had to be less direct in its business plan.

Read full article @ Hexus

be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev 2 Full-Tower Chassis Review

be quiet! are well known for their high-end coolers and PSUs. However, I think it’s their chassis that have quickly become the crowning jewels of their product range in recent years. It seems we’re never far away from a new and improved chassis design from be quiet! While we loved their original Pro 900, we know that if be quiet! think they can do better, then they get on and do it.

The Rev.2 version of their legendary chassis is packed full of high-end features, worthy of an enthusiast solution. You’ll find three superb Silent Wings 3 fans pre-installed, a fan controller, impressive cooling and radiator support and much more. However, crazy features like a completely invertible and reversible interior, tempered glass, RGB, and Qi charging should help it stand out from the crowd too.

There’s obviously a lot to cover here, so let’s just get it out of the box, and dive in for a closer look. Feel free to check out the interesting videos from be quiet! below too. Come and join me on the next page when you’re done.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Cougar LX 500w Bronze Fully Modular Power Supply Review

While Cougar might be reasonably newcomers to the world of PC parts and components, they have very quickly attempted to grab themselves a slice of cake in what is a very crowded party. At present they offer many components from gaming mouses to system chassis and even dabble in some of the luxury gaming items such as headsets and gaming chairs. In this instance though, we take a look at one of their newer entries in the world of power supplies.

We have reviewed Cougar power supplies in the past and most recently an earlier STX line. In truth, as much as we wanted to like it, we were not fans. In the LX though, it seems that Cougar may have learned from their mistakes. Unlike the STX line, this new version is fully-modular and in addition, it also has achieved a bronze rating in power efficiency. While the STX was 80 plus rated, it did not perform well enough to achieve a bronze rating. In fact, our testing at 100% load found it only barely squeaked even at that 80 plus requirement.

Therefore, with a new model, so far, this sounds like music to my ears in terms of improvements.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Cyberpower Hyper Liquid GTX Custom Watercooled PC

It's a £2500 custom watercooled system from Cyberpower. Just how good is it? The Cyberpower Hyper Liquid GTX is a top of the range PC with plenty of power for gaming, video editing and beyond. With some of 2018’s most coveted components alongside a custom watercooled loop and plenty of RGB lighting, it sounds like every PC enthusiasts’ wet dream. But is this PC as good as it sounds? In this review we put it through its paces to find out if this £2649 monster pre-built is worth the investment.

Read full article @ KitGuru

GeForce GT 1030: The DDR4 Abomination Benchmarked

Today we’re taking a look at what's one of the worst graphics cards ever released. But before we get to that... imagine you're on a seriously tight budget, likely some of you won’t have to be too creative, after all PC gaming is something most of us do to unwind after a day of work, relax a bit, and have some fun.

So not everyone can afford to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in PC gaming when there are other bills to be paid. You might also be a young kid getting into PC gaming and computing. That can be tough for some, most parents are going to be more interested in the idea of buying a console than a computer, which I feel is a mistake, but let’s not get into that here.

Read full article @ TechSpot

ID-Cooling Chromaflow 240 CPU Cooler Review

This, being the fifth liquid cooling solution for ID-Cooling has shown us one thing; that they are not afraid to redesign and include more features to attempt to gain more of the market share. While the initial coolers were lackluster, with flat square heat units, as we saw in the white Icekimo, things have changed. ID-Cooling then moved to round head units, and various forms of single color LED displays.

First, there was the Frostflow, which had squares around the edge, which had red LEDs, which appeared to be moving around the head unit at a set speed. Along came the Auraflow sporting a ring and a backlit logo on the round head unit. The colors could be changed, but in this model, you can only see one color at a time. In what we have today, we see the first integration of RGB LEDs, and not only can you choose from various colors, there is also the option for a rainbow effect, along with multiple others, via control by remote or via an RGB 4-pin header on the motherboard.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Noctua NF-P12 Redux (1700 PWM, 1300 PWM, 1300, 900) Cooling Fans Review

The Noctua NF-P12 Redux fans are updated versions of old favorites that are competitively priced with excellent performance.

When it comes to expensive hobbies, computers are definitely one of them. It is not as expensive as photography or cars, but if you are an enthusiast upgrading to new technology every year, it will definitely make it quite expensive. There are always budget options to go with. Starting with cases, one can always pick one up at a much lower price point, but there are always sacrifices accompanied with it. For cases, these sacrifices are not as big. You might not get RGB or tempered glass side panels, but you might have a plastic panel that will still show off all the internals instead. As for the processor and graphics card, these are usually the two components most people spend a big part of their budget on, and rightly so. The motherboard and the power supply are usually somewhere in the middle. Finding the cheapest one with the right features is about all you need in these two components. Memory is another part of the computer that can be really expensive, and with the high prices on DDR4 memory, it can really break the bank. Cooling is "just get something that is effective" and they vary in price. But one component that is not necessarily on the list to change are fans. For the most part, getting different fans may not make the biggest difference unless you spend a good sum of money on them. In each case, a manufacturer might have a light version or a more affordable version, which generally sacrifices on some features or on performance. Noctua has a similar line of products, but instead of being cheaper versions of new products, they are reissues of older models, the NF-P12 PWM and NF-P12, in a cheaper package. Today, we have the Noctua NF-P12 Redux in four different versions, the 1700 PWM, 1300 PWM, 1300, and 900. We will have to see how these bare essentials reduce price but keeps performance up to Noctua's standard.

Read full article @ APH Networks

Raspberry Pi 3 Review

Some time ago we already have reviewed the first Raspberry Pi. With the exception of sophisticated multimedia applications, this could meet all our requirements for a single-board computer. Meanwhile, miniaturization is proceeding. Therefore we would like to take a closer look at the Raspberry Pi 3. This is not shrunk by the board size, but offers more features and performance than the previous models. A further advantage should not go unmentioned at this point: According to current knowledge, the Raspberry Pi 3 is immune to the security holes Meltdown and Spectre! We now find out on OCinside.de what this small miracle of performance can do.

Read full article @ OCInside.de

Security nonsense: KDE Dolphin does not run as root - Fix

Osbourne Tux? Are you worried about the security of your sh ... Don't be. Here be a tutorial explaining how to run the Dolphin file manager in the Plasma desktop environment with root or sudo permissions using a non-intrusive loading of the necessary root-capable libkdeinit5_dolphin.so shared library with LD_PRELOAD.

About a year ago, this restriction was implemented in Plasma because "root was dangerous" [sic] and for a while, you could not launch Dolphin as root or with sudo. This would-be security measure made my rage enzymes spike through the roof. Since, the KDE team has wisely gone back on this change, and starting with KDE Application 18.08 bundle, you can do this again once more. Job well done. Kudos. But what if you're running an older version of Dolphin? This tutorial offers a non-intrusive, stopgap measure for that.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

Xtorm Limitless 10.000mAh Waterproof Power Bank Review

How many of you recall a time when we had no need for electricity while away from home or the office? The introduction of smartphones and portable devices like Mini Disk and MP3 players well over 20 years ago changed all that and although it has taken many people a very long time to "discover" the benefits of portable batteries (power banks) that seems to have changed in the recent years. Of course in a market filled with power banks it's not always easy to find the right one to cover your needs but as many friends point out quite often the majority of consumers are not very demanding not only in terms of capacity but also features. As for demanding consumers well there are some manufacturers out there looking out for them like Xtorm and since they recently released their latest rugged power bank called the Limitless 10.000 we just had to check it out.

Xtorm was founded in 2008 and is part of the Dutch company Telco Accessories B.V., which has its head office in Houten (NL). Xtorm designs, manufactures and markets innovative universal mobile charging solutions. Xtorm Business products complement the range. Xtorm products are contemporary, user friendly and high quality. Xtorm products are currently available in 57 countries worldwide.

Read full article @ NikKTech