Reviews 52191 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

28 DDR4 memory kits comparison test: the best memory for Coffee Lake and Ryzen
Asus ROG Strix X470-I Gaming Review
Ducky One 2 Skyline Keyboard Review
General: Roccat HORDE AIMO Keyboard Review
GIGABYTE B360 AORUS GAMING 3 WIFI Motherboard Review
Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming Review
Lenovo ThinkPad T480s Review
Noctua NF-A12x25 Fan Review
Royole Moon 3D Entertainment System Review
Samsung C49HG90 49-in Ultrawide FreeSync 2 Monitor Review
Sound Blaster K3+ Audio Interface Review
Step By Step Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) LAMP Server Setup
TP-Link Slim Deco Review



28 DDR4 memory kits comparison test: the best memory for Coffee Lake and Ryzen

For a long time, memory was one of the most boring components of a PC: you just had to have as much of it as possible; the specific type and speed were of little importance. Now those strips of RAM are suddenly one of the most talked-about parts. It's time for a thorough test.

Compared to ddr3, the clock speeds of the memory increased. 2133 MHz is the minimum speed for DDR4 and in practice we see modules with much higher clock frequencies. Although the performance gain is partly offset by higher latencies, the new generation is still a little faster all things considered. Especially for laptops, the lower operating voltage is also an advantage, which results in a more economical operation.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Asus ROG Strix X470-I Gaming Review

X470 and Mini-ITX? Good or bad? There's a solid argument to be made that with the relative demise of multi-GPU technology, plus the ever-increasing levels of feature integration into chipsets, smaller motherboards ought to be more in favour.

A quality Mini-ITX board of 2018 doesn't compromise on much. That is Asus' thinking too, and it has released said form factor for AMD's X470 chipset. Enter the ROG Strix X470-I Gaming.

Read full article @ Hexus

Ducky One 2 Skyline Keyboard Review

Ducky has given their One series of keyboards a makeover with the new One 2 series. Coming in three options of a customized case and multi-toned keycap sets out of the box, we take a look at the One 2 Skyline that offers a well-built, fairly unique-looking keyboard with extensive onboard functionality at a good price.

Ah, Ducky! It was nearly five years ago now since I first started looking into keyboards to replace OEM membrane ones, and due diligence was a must since I was blissfully ignorant of what my options were. Keyboards targeted at gamers were already present with Logitech and Razer doing great marketing and CORSAIR coming out with some new options people seemed to like. Ducky Channel International Co., or Ducky, as more popularly known by, had over 15 years in the game at that point, and their then recently announced Shine 3 keyboard seemed to be what everyone wanted. The world was smaller back then, however, with fewer retail channels carrying the brand that was seemingly a giant in Asia predominantly, so I went with another brand while continuing to question what could have been. In the years since, I have had my hands on over 100 different keyboards and things finally go full circle today with my first, but not last review of a Ducky keyboard. Thanks again to Ducky for sending a sample for TechPowerUp to examine.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

General: Roccat HORDE AIMO Keyboard Review

We review a lot of keyboards here at MMORPG.com. Some are fantastic examples of function over form. Some really stretch the limits of purpose, and some just are outright gimmicky. In a competitive world of peripherals, there’s very little that’s truly new to do in gaming keyboards. Enter Roccat’s latest, the Roccat Horde AIMO may look just like any other, and in some ways that’s true. But the “membranical” keys, functionality, and the simple but extremely effective addition of the function dial make this $90 keyboard stand out.

Read full article @ MMORPG

GIGABYTE B360 AORUS GAMING 3 WIFI Motherboard Review

While many people have focused on H370 motherboards, people tend to overlook the lower cost B360 motherboards. Today we will look at GIGABYTE's top of the line B360 motherboard the B360 Aorus Gaming 3 WIFI, which is designed to provide basic features for gamers on a budget.

If you have a non-K SKU Intel Coffee Lake CPU, there is almost no reason (other than memory OC) to use a Z370 motherboard, and for many, the B360 chipset will provide all they need. Let's take a look at a high-end B360 motherboard.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming Review

Ryzen Generation 2 Zen+ was launched in April, aka Ryzen 2000 or 12nm optimized Ryzen processors, the 'refresh' SKUs so to say. The new 12nm Zen+ processors will work fine with your X370 chipset based motherboard and vice versa, however, AMD launched the X470 chipset alongside these new Zen+ processors. The new chipset offers small improvements in combo with the new 12nm products. For example, to better facilitate XFR2 options. It has been a year already ever since AMD launched the first generation Ryzen processors. It had a bit of a rocky launch with the inter-core latency discussion a 1080p gaming performance as well as memory support. But the tide definitely turned for AMD as more and more people are considering to purchase an AMD processor-based PC, for their next purchase. The memory compatibility issues are mostly all gone, of course, we'll look at game performance in this article as well. But yes, things are looking good. The new 12nm processor generation can be clocked a notch higher. The upper range frequencies at 4.2~4.3 now are feasible, that also means that on the lower end of the spectrum, AMD is now capable to increase base-clock performance ion the more high-end parts. All these little tweaks bring the benefit of an overall faster processor series. Add to that improved memory latency and improved XFR2 ranges and you'll notice that the new ZEN+ generation now has become a really viable and more competitive product. So the ones that have not made a move towards AMD Ryzen just yet, now potentially could or will. So if you go with a proper processor, you'll like want a proper motherboard as well eh? X470 will give a home to the new Zen+ procs, with socket AM4 and will provide faster DDR4 memory support (as well as all other modern usual suspects like USB 3.1 gen 2, SATA Express, as well as NVMe protocol based M.2 support and surely PCI-Express Gen 3.0).

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

Lenovo ThinkPad T480s Review

Lenovo refreshed its lineup of ThinkPads at CES this year, as it always does. At this point, I've reviewed a wide variety of the lineup, and as you'd expect, there are similarities across the brand. Aside from the obvious design similarities, they all use an excellent keyboard, Thunderbolt 3, quad-core Intel Core processors, and more.

Last month, I reviewed the ThinkPad T480, a solid workhorse with a battery that can be hot-swapped. The ThinkPad T480s is the PC's slimmer sibling, borrowing some elements from the T480 in terms of power and connectivity, but taking a lighter carbon fiber design from the X1 Carbon.

Read full article @ Neowin

Noctua NF-A12x25 Fan Review

The FN-A12x25 uses an ultra-tight tip clearance on the edge of the blades, running only 0.5mm from the inside of the frame, requiring new engineering techniques to be employed. This helps to reduce back pressure by allowing the air nowhere to go other than forwards, affording a more efficient fan. There's also flow acceleration channels, a solid steel and brass hub structure, stepped inlet design and loads of other technologies employed to ensure this fan is as good as currently possible.

Read full article @ Vortez

Royole Moon 3D Entertainment System Review

It has not been that long since several manufacturers released the first 3D glasses. Now we also reach price regions where the purchase of such a device is quite affordable. Today we would like to present a very special combination in our OCinside.de review. It is the Moon 3D Entertainment platform of Royole. Despite its lack of motion control, the manufacturer promises an immersive experience both with films and other video clips or games. Whether the Moon 3D system can keep its promises and what makes this set something special can be found here on OCinside.de today!

Read full article @ OCInside.de

Samsung C49HG90 49-in Ultrawide FreeSync 2 Monitor Review

Ultrawide monitors have become an enormous trend in PC gaming over the last 3-4 years. In late 2014 when LG launched the first PC monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio, I indeed was a skeptic. To me, it seemed like such a radical new aspect ratio would be wrought with game incompatibility, and wouldnt offer much of an advantage over two monitor setups for productivity.
And in the beginning, this was mostly the case. In 2014, games didnt even enable the option for 21:9 aspect ratio resolutions, and those that did, generally resulted in distorted image and FOV settings.
However, gamers wanted these ultrawide aspect ratio displays, and the game support soon followed. Now, ultrawide monitors are a staple of every monitor manufacturers product lineup.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Sound Blaster K3+ Audio Interface Review

We first got a look at the Sound Blaster K3+ at CES when we stopped by the Creative Suite. It was advertised as a USB Audio Interface designed with streamers in mind. To say that I was impressed with the concept of the K3+ would be a vast understatement. In fact, it was the thing I was most excited about seeing at CES 2018. But too often, launch products are a shell of their prototype counterparts. I’ve learned my lesson with getting too excited over hype. But, the K3+ had such potential, it was hard to not get my hopes up that the K3+ would be everything they said at CES.

Well, after extensive testing with the Sound Blaster K3+, including comparing it to my previous interface, with a couple different microphones, I’m very happy to say, the K3+ not only lived up to my expectations, but may have exceeded them just a bit. One of the best features is actually the lack of features. These being drivers and software. The K3+ is plug and play and can be used without a computer.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Step By Step Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) LAMP Server Setup

In around 15 minutes, the time it takes to install Ubuntu Server Edition, you can have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server up and ready to go. This feature, exclusive to Ubuntu Server Edition, is available at the time of installation.The LAMP option means you don’t have to install and integrate each of the four separate LAMP components, a process which can take hours and requires someone who is skilled in the installation and configuration of the individual applications. Instead, you get increased security, reduced time-to-install, and reduced risk of misconfiguration, all of which results in a lower cost of ownership.Currently this installation provide PostgreSQL database, Mail Server, Open SSH Server,Samba File Server, Print Server, LAMP and DNS options for pre-configured installations, easing the deployment of common server configurations.

Read full article @ Ubuntu Geek

TP-Link Slim Deco Review

For the last year or so I’ve been on the fence about picking up a new router. But along with moving into a new house, I decided to finally retire my Time Capsule. After a lot of deliberation, I landed on TP-Link’s deco mesh Wi-Fi system and I’ve been really impressed with the features it offers, such as the app, performance, and price. Read on for our full review.

Even though I had heard lots of great things about mesh systems and could have improved my wireless situation long ago, I had an attachment to my 2009 Time Capsule. I’m not sure if it was nostalgia, the dual functionality, or something else, but it kept on trucking for almost a decade and I kept pushing off replacing it.

Read full article @ 9to5 Mac