Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Circle with Disney Parental Controls and Internet Filtering Review
CUK AC1300 Dual Band USB Adapter Review
Diplomatic Munity - Lethal Gnome 2
GIGABYTE H370 AORUS Gaming 3 WIFI Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE H370N WIFI Review
Hands on: Nokia 7 Plus Review
HP SSD EX920 M.2 Solid State Drive Review
Improving The Exynos 9810 Galaxy S9: Part 1
Intel halts microcode patch development for 230+ CPUs
Interview with Aicha Evans, Intel’s Chief Strategy Officer
Kingston intros A1000 PCIe NVMe SSDs at near SATA pricing
Kingston KC1000 240 GB Review
Playstation 5 will have a customised eight-core Zen chip
POWER9 Benchmarks vs. Intel Xeon vs. AMD EPYC Performance On Debian Linux
Samsung Notebook 9 Pen Review
Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 1000W PSU Review
Valve: Steam Machines and Linux Gaming NOT Dead
Zotac AMP Box Mini Review

Circle with Disney Parental Controls and Internet Filtering Review

As my children have gotten older and become more “connected device” savvy, I have been on the hunt for something which makes it easier to manage the amount of time they spend online as well as what they can see and do while surfing. The Circle with Disney Parental Controls & Internet Filtering network management device, despite its odd name, promises exactly that – with features to track and limit online time, sites, and content type based on an easy to use age-based bucketing scheme. For $99, this network monitoring and protection device seemed like the perfect solution to my dilemma, but comes with some serious drawbacks as well.

Read full article @ MissingRemote

CUK AC1300 Dual Band USB Adapter Review

Upgrading your wireless connectivity should not be hard. If you have an older laptop that only supports 2.4Ghz connectivity then you know the pain with slow downloads and streaming. Let’s face it, everything we do with computers require Internet access and with constant upgrades from carriers, it really becomes challenging to keep up with technology. Luckily there are USB based devices that offer faster throughput speed and upgrade from 2.4 GHz connectivity to 5 GHz. Computer Upgrade King has sent us one of their CUK AC1300 Dual Band USB High Gain Wireless USB Adapter to test and play with. AC1300 is a Dual Band USB based adapted which supports 2.4 and 5GHz bands and offers transfer speeds up to 1300Mbps. With a simple plug and play set up, WiFi Network adapters such as this can make upgrade fast and painless for very cheap money.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Diplomatic Munity - Lethal Gnome 2

MATE, got Linux? Le behold de enthusiastic review of Munity, a Unity-like implementation of the Brisk menu, with Dash, HUD and global menu integration, plus many other exciting features and options in MATE 1.20, including multiple menu and panel layouts, built-in dock, improved ergonomics and looks, and more. Avanti.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

GIGABYTE H370 AORUS Gaming 3 WIFI Motherboard Review

For the launch of the Intel H370 chipset motherboards, GIGABYTE chose their AORUS brand to lead the charge. The AORUS branding differentiates the enthusiast and gamer friendly products from other GIGABYTE product lines, similar to how ASUS uses the ROG branding to differentiate their high performance product line. The H370 AORUS Gaming 3 WIFI is among GIGABYTE's intial release boards offering support for the latest Intel consumer chipset and processor lines. Built around the Intel H370 chlipset, the board supports the Intel LGA1151 Coffee Lake processor line and Dual Channel DDR4 memory running at up to 2667MHz speeds. The H370 AORUS Gaming 3 WIFI can be found in retail with an MRSP of $139.99.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

GIGABYTE H370N WIFI Review

In our coverage of this week’s release of new Intel B360/H370 Express chipset we’ve taken a look at various B360 options for pairing up with Intel’s 8th Generation Processors, but today we move away from B360 for a look at a H370 motherboard from GIGABYTE.

Under observation we have the GIGABYTE H370N WiFi - a Mini-ITX motherboard offering WiFi functionality via 802.11ac. This could be the ideal foundation for building a mini-powerhouse without having to spend the extra cash that Intel Z370 demands.

Read full article @ Vortez

Hands on: Nokia 7 Plus Review

Even though this phone isn’t Nokia’s flagship phone, it still has some pretty high-end features for a mid-range phone. The long wait after the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 finally ended with the Nokia 7 Plus being launched at the HMD Global event today, April 4.

This Nokia phone hasn’t shed its 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a delight for audiophiles that need to use their wired headsets. Also, its partnership with Zeiss ensures that the phone’s camera is a delight to use. And since the phone can only be used if its charged, the 3,800mAH battery promises to give two days of usability according to the company.

Read full article @ TechRadar

HP SSD EX920 M.2 Solid State Drive Review

In this article for Benchmark Reviews, we test the 1TB HP SSD EX920 M.2 (model 2YY47AA#ABC) against a host of other PCI-Express 3.1 NVME solid state drive competitors. HP suggests sustained sequential read speeds up to 3200 MB/s, and sustained sequential writes up to 1800 MB/s from their 1TB EX920 SSD, which utilizes 64-layer 3D NAND to deliver impressive storage density and reliability. Relative to solid state storage, one terabyte is an enormous amount of near-instant drive capacity. We’ll see if HP’s EX920 M.2 SSD is worth the money.

Read full article @ Benchmark Reviews

Improving The Exynos 9810 Galaxy S9: Part 1

Last week we published our Galaxy S9 and S9+ review, and the biggest story (besides the device) was the difference between the processors used inside the two variants: the Snapdragon 845 SoC and Exynos 9810 SoC. Based on earlier announcements, we had large expectations from the Exynos 9810 as it promised to be the first “very large core” Android SoC. However, our initial testing put a lot of questions on the table. Unfortunately the synthetic performance of the Exynos 9810 did not translate well at all into real life performance. As part of the testing, I had discovered that the device’s scheduler and DVFS (dynamic voltage-frequency scaling) configurations were atrociously tuned.

For the full review I had opted not to go modify the device, as that initial review was aimed as a consumer oriented article, and it would serve little purpose to readers (that and time constraints). Still I promised I would follow up in the coming weeks and this is the first part of what’s hopefully a series where I try to extract as much as possible out of the Exynos 9810 and alleviate its driver situation.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Intel halts microcode patch development for 230+ CPUs

Updates official guidance with these 'stopped' status security flawed processors. Intel quietly updated its microcode update guidance (PDF) on 2nd April. The last time we checked this document, back in mid-March, it was good news and Intel simultaneously revealed via a blog post that it had updated the microcode for all of the products it had launched in the past five years. The latest update to the PDF isn't very good news, as if you check through the document you will see that many processors/chipsets have been shifted to a new production status labelled 'stopped'.

Read full article @ Hexus

Interview with Aicha Evans, Intel’s Chief Strategy Officer

Expanding into several different new markets has challenges that only the most well positioned and structured companies can achieve. Having covered the growth of Intel over the last ten years, the nuances of how Intel has expanded over the last 2-3 years require more analysis than ever before. The goals of each of Intel’s different business units, aside from making the company money, are multi-faced and sometimes orthogonal – sometimes as a journalist it makes life easy to be hyper-focused on one segment of the company! Nonetheless, the strategy of all the different businesses and markets that Intel is pursuing becomes a very complex interweave, structured from the top down. Unified across each business unit is the strategy, indicating where and when Intel can deploy its resources to the benefit of product, customers, and shareholders. Leading Intel’s strategy is Aicha Evans.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Kingston intros A1000 PCIe NVMe SSDs at near SATA pricing

These 2280 M.2 drives are available in 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB capacities. Memory specialist Kingston has introduced its new A1000 PCIe NVMe SSDs. The new range is available in 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB capacities and they are all single sided PCB 2280 M.2 format sticks. Kingston leverages a PCIe NVMe Gen 3.0 x2 interface, 4-channel Phison E8 controller, and 3D NAND TLC Flash to construct these drives. A headlining claim made by Kingston is that the A1000 PCIe NVMe SSDs will be made available "at near SATA pricing" but deliver almost double the speed of SATA-based rivals.

Read full article @ Hexus

Kingston KC1000 240 GB Review

Kingston's KC1000 is the company's premier NVMe M.2 SSD solution. It it built using a Phison controller, paired with Toshiba MLC flash, which is great for all those TLC haters out there. We take the 240 GB version for a spin, through synthetic and real-life benchmarks.

The Kingston KC1000 SSD uses the M.2 form factor with a PCI-Express x4 3.0 interface for maximum transfer speeds. As the controller, a Phison PS5007 is used, which is paired with MLC flash from Toshiba. Inside the package you receive not only the M.2 SSD, but a PCI-Express card, which enables use of this drive with older systems that lack physical M.2 slots.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Playstation 5 will have a customised eight-core Zen chip

SemiAccurate’s Charlie Demerjian claims that Sony’s PlayStation 5 hardware will feature an APU composed of customised 8-Core Zen CPU and a Navi-based GPU.

Charlie thinks the hardware will be engineered with VR optimisation in mind and that shedloads of development kits has been already sent to game developers. If this is correct then the console’s launch could be close – 2018 or early 2019 release window.

Read full article @ Fudzilla

POWER9 Benchmarks vs. Intel Xeon vs. AMD EPYC Performance On Debian Linux

For several days we've had remote access to one of the brand new Raptor Talos II Workstations that is powered by POWER9 processors and open-source down through the firmware. For those curious how these latest POWER processors compare to AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon processors, here are some benchmarks comparing against of the few other systems in house while all testing was done from Debian GNU/Linux.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen Review

This two-in-one doesn't look like a $1,399 device, and yet it's priced as such. You're probably familiar with Samsung smartphones, Samsung TVs, and maybe even Samsung home appliances, like futuristic refrigerators. People know Samsung for a lot of reasons, but their PC business generally isn't one of them. While the South Korean tech giant sells a number of laptops, it knows that those devices aren't as prevalent in the general consumer consciousness as competing Dell, HP, and Lenovo PCs.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 1000W PSU Review

Seasonic's Prime Titanium PSUs are the Prime family's flagships, and the 1kW model we're reviewing today is the strongest Seasonic PSU with 80 PLUS Titanium efficiency and an incredibly quiet fan.

So why even bother with digital platforms? The reason is simple. After so many years of development, and with engineers so accustomed to analog circuits, it's only natural to see masterpieces like the Prime platform. But there isn't any room left to extract better performance or higher efficiency from analog circuits; they've reached their limits. If we want to see more than 94% overall efficiency, then there is no other solution except digital circuits along with GaN FETs and Totem-pole PFC converters, which enable lower energy losses.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Valve: Steam Machines and Linux Gaming NOT Dead

Pierre-Loup from the Valve Corporation has addressed the controversial removal of Steam Machines from the Steam Store that made the rumor mill. He says that they aren't actually removed from the Steam Store, but are simply in hiding behind relevant and thus much better selling products in the navigational tree. This revelation brought all the Linux cave dwellers out in force to cheer for their favorite product.

On a serious note, he admitted that they weren't flying off store shelves and then detailed all the extensive work that Valve is doing to make Vulkan, Steam, and gaming in general better. Then he mentions SteamOS while name dropping macOS and iOS. This should get those external Thunderbolt GPU cages that Apple was promoting some traction! Thanks @cageymaru.

Read full article @ HardOCP

Zotac AMP Box Mini Review

Today we will take a quick look at the Zotac AMP Box Mini with an Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Card installed with a Patriot Hellfire M.2 PCIE SSD. The AMP Box Mini is an external enclosure featuring a Thunderbolt 3 connection (upto 40Gbps) as well as USB 3.1 Gen2 support (10Gbps). It’s compatible with all PCIE add-on cards including graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 10 series (as an external GPU – pictured below) or PCIE SSDs (as an external storage device).

Unfortunately, we were unable to fully test the Thunderbolt 3 and video performance of the Zotac AMP Box Mini fitted with a GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) graphics card. My PC system sees the graphics card, but fails to establish it as a primary graphics card. Apparently, having the Zotac AMP Box Mini as an external GPU is best configured and run on MacOS/MacBooks.

Read full article @ FunkyKit