Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Alienware Area 51 R5 Review
AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 Review
ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ 27" 4K 144Hz G-SYNC Monitor Review
ASUS ZenBook Flip S Review
Best SSD For Gaming: Over 120 SSDs Tested
Ducky Shine 6 Keyboard Review
GIGABYTE X399 DESIGNARE EX Motherboard Review
OpenSUSE Leap 15 Plasma - Way too buggy, me sad
SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Gaming Headset Review
The Rise & Fall Of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich
WD Black NVMe SSD 1TB Review
Wine 3.10 vs. Ubuntu 18.04 vs. Windows 10 Desktop Performance
xFyro xS2 Wireless Earbuds Review

Alienware Area 51 R5 Review

It’s evolving. Alienware’s Area-51 is back with new upgrades to accommodate Intel’s most demanding enthusiast CPU yet – the Core i9-7980XE. Sure, on the surface everything seems similar to previous iterations of the machine, but within something new courses through its veins.

The new Alienware Area-51 R5 arrives with liquid cooled GPUs for the first time since the brand was introduced. This is the natural next-step for one of the most powerful gaming desktops...

Read full article @ HotHardware

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 Review

Today we take a look at two of AMD's more recent 2000-series of Ryzen processors. Using the new 12nm LP process, we see boosts in clock frequency and a reduction in cache and DRAM latencies. Together these improvements should definitely kick things up a notch, and since all the SKUs can overclock, the 2700 and 2600 are great value options compared to their 2700X and 2600X big brothers.

Today we will look at two new CPUs, the 2700X and 2600X, but AMD is also releasing the 2700 and 2600 processors for roughly $30 less than the "X" counterparts. The first CPU, the Ryzen 7 2700 comes with 20MB of cache, 8 cores and 16 threads, and a 3.2GHz base with a 4.1Ghz boost. That's a boost 200MHz lower than the 27000X and a base 500MHz lower. The 2700 comes with the Wraith Spire cooler, but it has an RGB LED ring around the fan.

Read full article @ TweakTown

ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ 27" 4K 144Hz G-SYNC Monitor Review

To say that the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming is a bit of an understatement. In the computer hardware world where we are generally lucky to know about a product for 6-months, the PG27UQ is a product that has been around in some form or another for at least 18 months.
Originally demonstrated at CES 2017, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ debuted alongside the Acer Predator X27 as the worlds first G-SYNC displays supporting HDR. With promised brightness levels of 1000 nits, G-SYNC HDR was a surprising and aggressive announcement considering that HDR was just starting to pick up steam on TVs, and was unheard of for PC monitors. On top of the HDR support, these monitors were the first announced displays sporting a 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, due to their DisplayPort 1.4 connections.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

ASUS ZenBook Flip S Review

If you're looking for the thinnest convertible laptop around, you'll find it in the ZenBook Flip S.

ASUS has three ZenBook laptops that are all fairly similar but have their own unique identifiers. The ZenBook 3 Deluxe is an amazing Ultrabook with performance and style galore. But if you're looking for something that supports touch, it's not for you.

That's where the ZenBook Flip S comes into play. Not only does it bring a touch display to the party but also a digital pen and that display that flips around.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Best SSD For Gaming: Over 120 SSDs Tested

You want to take The Warrior of Light and comrades to the war torn region of Gyr Abania but slow storage delays your journey. Today we find the best SSD for gaming by looking at 125 products including many classics that you likely already own.

It's the age old story. Slow load times make gaming less exciting. The story plays out across platforms and game modes. As graphics quality increases, so does the amount of data required for virtual worlds. The data has to come from your storage system but not all storage is the same.

The first online game to focus attention on the storage system was Battlefield 3. When released no one had heard of a SSD. The Western Digital Raptor series with 10,000 RPM platters was the fastest consumer storage drive and a must have for gamers. A single drive would get you in the game quickly and in most clans that might mean getting in a jet before others on your team.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Ducky Shine 6 Keyboard Review

Ducky as a brand has been synonymous with their Shine series of keyboards, and today, we take a look at the latest iteration - the Shine 6. It is an interesting blend of past and present with some hints towards the future, featuring a new ABS plastic case design, thick PBT keycaps, full 16.8M RGB backlighting supported by on-board and software controls alike, as well as accessories including a detachable cable, replacement keycaps and a mouse bungee.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

GIGABYTE X399 DESIGNARE EX Motherboard Review

In this review we are having a look at GIGABYTEs currently best AMD X399 motherboard, the Designare EX. The specifications of the motherboard are impressive, and the design of the board certainly makes it stand out from the rest. The X399 Designare EX is slightly more competitively priced compared to its competition as well. We closely examine its features and capabilities in this review.

Read full article @ Anandtech

OpenSUSE Leap 15 Plasma - Way too buggy, me sad

Color me surprised. Color me blue. I regretfully approve of this long, detailed and negative review of openSUSE 15 Plasma edition, covering live session testing, installation in a dual-boot configuration on a laptop with Nvidia graphics, and post-install usage, including network connectivity - Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing, printing, time sync issue, multimedia playback - HD video and MP3, fonts, installer wizard bugs, partitioning niggles, installation failure and subsequent second attempt, package management and updates, Nvidia drivers, applications, smartphone connectivity - Android, iPhone (iOS) and Windows Phone, resource utilization, performance, responsiveness, hardware compatibility, system stability and numerous crashes, customization, many problems associated with pretty much every aspect of the desktop usage, and more. Take a look.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Gaming Headset Review

As you may have read in the Sennheiser GSP 500 review, I have been going through a lot of changes in the recent months. The next big change has been related to my career. I have actually been looking for a new position for a while. We had gone through a few personnel changes at work, leaving me with a lot of growth opportunities without any mentors. One might think this is a really good thing, but I think I am still young as a developer and need people with more experience above me. During my search period, I worked with a headhunter to help me with finding different prospects and they showed me a lot of different companies I had no idea existed in Calgary. Ultimately, I ended up going with a different company altogether, but I was very appreciative of the things they helped me learn along the way. The biggest among those learning moments was the fact I was totally out of shape for interviews. Interviews seemingly are a balance game of showing you are capable and showing you are willing to learn more. As software development is very much a team thing nowadays with the need for collaboration, you need to be confident in your own skills, but also be willing to work with others, whether they are much more or much less knowledgeable. Today's review unit of the SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC is from their newest lineup of gaming headsets. Unlike me and my software experience, SteelSeries has been developing headsets for a while, dating all the way back to their original Siberia days. Clearly, they have the confidence to show their prowess and abilities in this market space, so what do we have today? We will see, so read on to find out!

Read full article @ APH Networks

The Rise & Fall Of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich

Intel announced the resignation of Intel CEO and director Brian Krzanich after it was revealed that he had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee in his chain of command. *We look at the rise and fall of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.*

Read full article @ TechARP

WD Black NVMe SSD 1TB Review

Western Digital might bring to mind spinning disks but they have been dabbling in the SSD market for a while now, especially with their pickup of SanDisk. I’ve ever had the chance to check out their portable SSD. But this past April WD was really hyping up a launch and at PAX East they introduced their first 3D NAND NVMe SSD, the WD Black M.2. Of course, that could be a little confusing because there was previously a WD Black M.2 drive. With SanDisk's 64-layer 3D TLC and Western Digitals own controller, the WD Black promises some crazy numbers and I’m excited to take a look and see how it performs.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

Wine 3.10 vs. Ubuntu 18.04 vs. Windows 10 Desktop Performance

Here are some fresh benchmarks comparing the performance of a variety of cross-platform Windows/Linux desktop applications when benchmarking the native Windows 10 binaries, the Windows binaries under Wine 3.10 on Ubuntu 18.04, and then the native Linux binaries itself on Ubuntu 18.04. All tests were done on the same system and these results do a good job at showing the potential (and shortcomings) of Wine from a performance perspective.

Read full article @ Phoronix

xFyro xS2 Wireless Earbuds Review

The luxurious brushed aluminum charging case of the xS2 Wireless Earbuds by xFyro may help them stand out from the crowd but it's their IP67 certification (dust and water proof) that makes them worth checking out. If you enjoy listening to music while on the road or even while working out by using your smartphone chances are you've seen numerous "true" wireless earbuds recently some released by well-established manufacturers like Jabra and Onkyo and far more by many rather unknown ones. Now if you've been following our reviews then you should know that although we feel that wired headphones/earphones can't be surpassed by wireless models (at least not in terms of audio clarity/accuracy) at the same time we are well aware that the lack of cables is too important for some people and so we're always doing our best to test as many of these wireless earbuds as we can. The xS2 Wireless Earbuds by xFyro is among the latest models to hit the market and we just finished our 3 week testing.

Our founders came together to serve a common need for all music lovers: offering a top quality audio product at reasonable prices - no gimmicks, no huge marketing budget, just great technology and sound. Our team of engineers and musicians serves one mission: combining cutting-edge audio technology with style and quality. We have offices in New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong and our team is made up of engineers, designers, and musicians spread across North America and Asia!

Read full article @ NikKTech