Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Age of Empires - Rise of the Rajas - Another star
AMD Radeon RX Vega56 8GB Review
AMD RX Vega 64: The Tom's Hardware Liquid Cooled Edition
AMD X399 Motherboards Overview
Asus ROG STRIX RX Vega64 O8G Gaming Preview
Bloody B820R Gaming Keyboard Review
Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3000C15 32GB Review
Next Generation Skype Preview for Windows 7, 8.1, and Mac Desktops Hans On
NVIDIA's Whisper Mode For GeForce-Powered Gaming Laptops Put To The Test
OpenGL vs. Vulkan On The AMD Ryzen 3
Qnap TS-253B Review
Scythe Mugen 5 CPU Cooler Review
Team T-Force Delta RGB Review
Tesoro Tuned In-Ear Pro
The Ultimate Ryzen Hackintosh
Thermaltake View 71 TG Full Tower Review
V-MODA Remix Bluetooth Speaker Review

Age of Empires - Rise of the Rajas - Another star

Here's an enthusiastic review of Age of Empires II HD edition and the Rise of the Rajas expansion pack, covering new civilizations, campaigns, buildings, units, maps, technologies, and more. Have fun.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

AMD Radeon RX Vega56 8GB Review

Aiming to strengthen granularity between its market positions that currently pit RX 580 against GTX 1060 in the mid-range and RX Vega64 against GTX 1080 in the high-end, AMD will be releasing the RX Vega56 to compete with Nvidia’s highly-popular GTX 1070. Operating as a cut-down version of the Vega 10 GPU, RX Vega56 runs at lower clock speeds than Vega64 and features fewer GPU cores. But in cutting down the GPU and reducing clock speeds, AMD has managed to shave 85W from the rated TDP and has sliced $100 off the MSRP, making RX Vega56 a $399 offering.

Read full article @ KitGuru

AMD RX Vega 64: The Tom's Hardware Liquid Cooled Edition

We know that AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 64 runs hot. There’s no headroom for overclocking and it’s noisy to boot. But can switching to a liquid cooler change the story? And if so, is the payoff worth the cost?

Read full article @ Toms Hardware

AMD X399 Motherboards Overview

Planning to buy the *AMD Ryzen Threadripper*? Here are the *first AMD X399 motherboards* you can pair your Threadripper with!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

Asus ROG STRIX RX Vega64 O8G Gaming Preview

You’ve seen the Vega news and you’ve read the Vega review, so now it’s time for a preview of the Asus ROG Strix RX Vega64 O8G Gaming, which is the first AIB (Add-In-Board) partner Vega64 that has broken free from the R&D Laboratory.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Bloody B820R Gaming Keyboard Review

Optical key switches provide fast response time and performance without compromising build quality. They use infrared sensors as a replacement for metal contacts, making them more durable when compared to a standard mechanical key switch. With the Bloody B820R Light Strike RGB Animation gaming keyboard, it uses LK (Light Strike) Optical switches built exclusively for Bloody keyboards. The B820R comes in two variants; one with blue switches (Machine Gun) and one with red switches (Silent Gun). Benchmark Reviews already tested the B820R with LK Optical Blue switches, so our friends at A4Tech sent us the red variant for this review.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3000C15 32GB Review

With their Vengeance RGB modules Corsair has some seriously good looking DRAM modules on the market. The customer receives an RGB illumination, which in combination with the black heatspreader, looks rather compelling. Apart from that the specs are interesting as well and DDR4-3000 should add a little performance.

Read full article @ ocaholic

Next Generation Skype Preview for Windows 7, 8.1, and Mac Desktops Hans On

This week Microsoft finally brought some of the next generation features and enhancements for Skype to older Windows and Mac desktops so those users can engage with these new options.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

NVIDIA's Whisper Mode For GeForce-Powered Gaming Laptops Put To The Test

A new feature of NVIDIA's latest GeForce technology for laptops that we weren't able to fully evaluate until now, is something NVIDIA calls Whisper Mode. Like its recently introduced Max Q technology that paves the way for thinner and lighter gaming laptops such as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501, Whisper Mode is another type of mobile gaming optimization, except it focuses on noise output with the intrinsic benefit of lower power draw as well. Short and to the point, it is an intelligent framerate pacing technology designed to lower GPU power consumption, utilization, and ultimately fan noise, while still delivering a smooth and playable gaming experience...

Read full article @ HotHardware

OpenGL vs. Vulkan On The AMD Ryzen 3

We have previously looked at Vulkan vs. OpenGL Linux game CPU core scaling and Linux game scaling across multiple CPUs but at the time did not have a Ryzen 3 system. Now having Ryzen 3 Linux box, here is a look at how the Vulkan versus OpenGL performance compares on the low-end processor. As well, it's a fresh look at the NVIDIA vs. RadeonSI/RADV performance.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Qnap TS-253B Review

A premium dual-bay NAS with PCIe expansion. Anyone looking to enter the world of network-attached storage should give strong consideration to Qnap or Synology. The two Taiwanese brands lead the way in terms of feature-packed software and robust hardware, and both are eager to refresh their product ranges on a regular basis with incremental upgrades that elevate the end-user experience.

Qnap, in particular, is quick to roll-out new models, and the firm's 2017 portfolio has recently been expanded to include the new-look TS-x53B series. Available in two-, four-, or six-bay variants, priced from £515, £635 and £750, respectively, the trio is each offered with a choice of 4GB of 8GB of built-in memory and promise more features than you're ever likely to need. We've been sent the dual-bay, 8GB TS-253B-8G, priced at £600, for evaluation purposes.

Read full article @ Hexus

Scythe Mugen 5 CPU Cooler Review

Scythe is a company we’ve been covering for a while now and they make some of the best air-cooled CPU coolers out there. We consider them right at the top with Noctua and Cryorig in that regard. Today we are checking out one of their larger cooler in the Mugen 5. It has a single tower heatsink design with six large copper heatpipes and a 120 mm cooling fan. The actual heatsink of the cooler is quite larger as the heatsink fins are almost double the size of what we typically see these days. Will this cooler be able to match some of the top air CPU coolers we’ve tested in the past? Read on as we find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

Team T-Force Delta RGB Review

Memory modules with LED lighting is nothing new, but now the RGB craze is in full swing, some users may want something that little extra special, and the T-Force Delta RGB may be exactly that. The cubist inspired, minimalistic design is slightly reminiscent of wings, and is wrapped in 120° full frame LED lighting.

Read full article @ Vortez

Tesoro Tuned In-Ear Pro

The Tesoro Tuned In Ear Pro headset aims to deliver gaming quality sound, which - as the name suggests - is a soundscape tuned to fit such a scenario best. With a few interesting features, like the aluminum housing or the magnets to hold them together, it will be interesting to "hear" (pun intended) whether they manage to sound better than the competition in the price segment.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

The Ultimate Ryzen Hackintosh

When you think of Hackintosh build, you may generally think of an Intel-powered rig in a big and bulky PC enclosure. That’s not the case for friend of the site Dom Esposito’s build, which took over a month to put together. His Ryzen-powered Hackintosh is neatly nestled inside of a custom Power Mac G5 case, providing a unique take on a Hackintosh build both on the inside and outside.

A water-cooled, overclocked 8-core AMD Ryzen 1700 CPU serves as the brains for Esposito’s build, along with an Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti serving up the graphics. As you might expect, multicore operations benefit from the added CPU power, and tasks enhanced by the graphical prowess of the 1080 Ti reaped benefits as well.

Read full article @ 9to5mac.com

Thermaltake View 71 TG Full Tower Review

With four 5mm thick tempered glass panels, vertical graphics card mount, two Riing Blue 140mm fans and enough interior space for up to 9 fans or 4 radiators, seven 3.5" or ten 2.5" drives and the largest hardware components currently available the brand new View 71 TG by Thermaltake redefines what a full tower should be all about.

Read full article @ NikKTech

V-MODA Remix Bluetooth Speaker Review

The V-MODA Remix shows that physics can be defied in order to deliver ridiculously good performance in an incredibly compact package.

Read full article @ APH Networks