- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Monday, 22 July 2019 23:54
With the recent Nvidia SUPER launch, it also means all new aftermarket cards. I had the chance to check out MSI’s highest-end RTX 2060 SUPER. Well, I also had two different cards come in from Gigabyte. The Gigabyte RTX 2060 SUPER Windforce OC which has an overclock over the Founders Edition model but sells for that same base price point and a Gigabyte RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC. The Gaming OC isn’t Gigabytes highest-end card, but it has the upgraded triple-fan cooling and a huge overclock which was well over all of the competition so I’m curious to see how they both perform and how they compare. Is the Gaming OC fast enough to justify a little more money and is the Windforce OC a better choice than the Founders Edition at the same price. Today we are going to find out!
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Pc-hardware
-
Published: Thursday, 18 July 2019 17:57
Patriot Memory s gaming focused brand is called Viper Gaming and in the past, I’ve had a few of their peripherals come into the office to check out but it was only recently when I had Viper Gaming RAM come in. I was curious about what they are doing to set their gaming lineup apart from the normal Patriot Memory RAM. They sent over their Viper Steel 2x8GB kit which is running at 3866 MHz. The Viper Steel lineup uses a simple styling that avoids the flashy lighting that a lot of other kits use and is available in up to 4400MHz which is the fastest kit in the Viper Gaming lineup. The kit I’m checking out today isn’t as fast as that 4400MHz kit but I’m excited to take a closer look at the new styling and see how our 3866Mhz kit performs as well.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Tuesday, 16 July 2019 18:14
Man, its been a crazy couple of weeks. Nvidia launched their RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2060 SUPER a week and a half ago. I had the chance to check them out and was impressed with the jump in performance they were both offering over the previous models. But then this past weekend AMD brought out their RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT which stepped things up even more. So today I’ve got our first RTX 2060 SUPER aftermarket card in, the MSI RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming X and today I’m going to see how MSI’s Gaming X improves on Nvidia’s design as well as checking out how an overclocked 2060 SUPER compares with the new AMD cards. Let’s dive in!
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Thursday, 11 July 2019 17:02
Well I’m a little late to the party on this one, during the mad dash to the combined NAVI and 3rd gen Ryzen launch I ran into a lot of issues with our GPU test bench and late in the process after spending almost a full week in the original testing I dropped everything to switch the bench over to X570 and redid all of the work. The good news that gave me time to come in with numbers running on a faster and more accurate system to what a lot of you might be looking to run the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT on. So today I’m going to take a look at what AMD has going on with their long-anticipated launch, check out the two reference models they sent, then put them through our tests to see how they perform. The Ryzen 9 3900X was a monster, it will be interesting to see how an all AMD system will perform.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Audio
-
Published: Tuesday, 09 July 2019 11:32
The pro lineup of mice and keyboards from Logitech has been by far my favorite thing that they have been working on over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong I like a lot of their other products, but the pro products have been a lot more subtle with their styling and clearly more in tune with the enthusiasts that you will find on product specific forums and subreddits. For example, the keyboard enthusiasts hating the “gaming” fonts used on so many keyboards and giving the pro keyboard thin bezels. On the mouse side of things, the enthusiasts on Reddit are extremely vocal about mice needing to be lightweight and aiming for shapes that are similar to classic mouse designs. Well, last year Logitech introduced their pro headset which moved away from the scratchy materials and went with a cleaner styling. Here almost a year and a half later they are introducing their refreshed lineup with the G Pro X Gaming Headset and the G Pro Gaming Headset. Today I’m going to check out the X model and see if it can win me over. I haven’t taken a look at a Logitech headset in a few years, I’m excited to see how the G Pro X performs. Let’s check it out!
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: CPU's
-
Published: Sunday, 07 July 2019 09:01
It doesn’t feel like its been over two years now but back in March of 2017 AMD introduced their Ryzen CPUs and without a doubt changed the entire PC market. Things were stagnant in just about every PC market, but especially in the CPU market and the introduction of Ryzen quickly changed things. Before that time the mainstream CPU market got its yearly refreshed quad-core CPU and that was about it. Now today AMD is releasing a mainstream CPU with 12 cores and 24 threads and their low-end APUs are rocking 4 cores. Its been a wild ride and it has had Intel on the defensive. Well today's the day we finally get to take a closer look at the new lineup and AMD sent over the Ryzen 9 3900X and the Ryzen 7 3700X for me to check out. Before I do that I want to dive into the new 3rd generation of Ryzen and the Zen 2 architecture that is powering it. Then from there, we can see how both CPUs perform. Let's go!
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Tuesday, 02 July 2019 09:18
I took a look at the new RTX 2060 SUPER Founders Edition first and was impressed that Nvidia basically turned it into the RTX 2070. With that in mind, it only made me wonder even more where that put the also announced RTX 2070 SUPER. So today I’m going to dive into the changes, take a look at the Founders Edition card, and then run the RTX 2070 SUPER FE through our ever-expanding benchmark suite. After that, we can take a look at pricing and see where the new card fits into the market. I don’t think I will ever get used to the SUPER branding when Nvidia had a few throwback options like GT and Ultra that they have used before. But beyond that, I’m excited to see how the 2070 SUPER performs.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Tuesday, 02 July 2019 09:00
Nvidia launched their RTX lineup 9 months ago with the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 and at the time there weren’t really games available to take advantage of the RTX specific features. RTX was one of those chicken or the egg situations where the cards to be able to handle real-time ray tracing needed to be available before any games were going to offer it as an option. Well, this years E3 showed a lot more games with ray tracing support in the pipeline and Nvidia hasn’t slowed down their RTX push, even with their launch of a few GTX cards early this year. In fact, now that they have been working with Turing for a little while now they have been able to pull a little better performance out of their cards. Of course, normally this would be when they launch their Ti cards but that was used last year so today they are introducing a few new cards with the SUPER designation. They have the RTX 2080 SUPER, RTX 2070 SUPER, and the RTX 2060 SUPER. Right now I’m going to take a look at the new RTX 2060 SUPER Founders Edition card to see what makes these new cards SUPER and then put it to the test through our benchmark suite as well.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Audio
-
Published: Thursday, 27 June 2019 13:45
If everyone could afford to pick up high-end headphones everyone would have them but for people getting their first gaming setup (PC, Console, or Mobile) or someone who wants to save money for the “go fast” parts it is important to have a lineup that fits that budget. I’ve had a few headsets come in that fit that range but up until now, Corsair has stayed a little higher with mid-range offerings like their HS50 and HS60. Well, today they are introducing a new more budget-friendly option in the HS35. It is still a full size over the hear headset but at a $39.99 price point. Not only that but Corsair is offering four different color options which is a little unusual for them but it fits perfectly in this price range. I can imagine brothers getting different color HS35’s to prevent fighting or LAN centers using them to prevent confusion. Either way, I have been testing them out for a few days now and with them launching today I thought I would give everyone the rundown on their features and performance. So let’s check them out.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Mobile
-
Published: Wednesday, 26 June 2019 22:00
OnePlus has their new OnePlus 7 out now and leading as their flagship but with the 7 being available it also pushed down the pricing on the Oneplus 6T. I’ve been using the 6T for a while now and with the new discounted price I thought it would be a good time to check it out and see how it compares with a few of today's top phones. I’ve got the Note 9 and S9+ to test alongside of the 6T today which are both similar in size and the S9+ is similar to the 6T in that it was a flagship that was recently surpassed by the S10. So let's check out what OnePlus has to offer with the 6T then run it through all of our tests to see how its performance compares.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Pc-hardware
-
Published: Tuesday, 11 June 2019 18:25
At CES earlier this year Corsair’s biggest introduction was their new CAPELLIX RGB’s which drop the conventional package that PC LEDs have been using to create a much smaller, brighter, and energy efficient LED. Now smaller means the potential for much higher density and energy efficiency could mean you could see them used more in wireless devices. But the first product they introduced with CAPELLIX LEDs was the Dominator Platinum RGB memory kits. So in addition to being the first Corsair RGB kit to come into the office, I’m also excited to see what the CAPELLIX LEDs can do. I will also talk a little more about the benefits later as well.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Power Supplies
-
Published: Monday, 03 June 2019 11:43
At this point, I couldn’t even count how many SFX power supplies that have come into the office. I love the form factor, even when building in smaller cases that can fit a full ATX power supply. Early on the SFX form factor was limited in power and because of the overall density struggled with heat and with that noise. That has improved a lot over the years, especially with Silverstone being a champion for SFX all the way from the start. They used to be the only option available if you wanted an SFX power supply with modular cables. Recently they introduced a few new SFX power supplies and one really stood out. This time it wasn’t about the jump in wattage, this model, in fact, has the same 450-watt rating of the early Silverstone SFX PSUs. The NJ450-SXL stands out for two reasons, it is 80 Plus Platinum rated which is great and also because it has no fan at all. The noise issues of the past can’t be an issue if there isn’t a fan to make noise right? Well, today I’m going to check it out and while we don’t do full PSU testing I am going to take a look at the thermals of the NJ450-SXL while under load to see how it does for cooling with no fan.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Pc-hardware
-
Published: Friday, 31 May 2019 20:46
Earlier this year Crucial I covered two sets of Ballistix Sport DDR4 and while I liked where they were going with the performance of the new kits I did feel the aesthetics were starting to look a little dated. Well, Crucial makes a lot of different styles of memory, especially in the Ballistix lineup and they sent over a new set which happens to be from their Elite lineup. I’m hoping their more premium kit is upgraded in looks (spoiler they are) and I’m curious how this 3600MHz kit performs as well. So let's take a look at them then run them through our testing.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Input Devices
-
Published: Tuesday, 28 May 2019 17:45
Typically I prefer mechanical keyboards but recently I have been on the lookout for a basic wireless keyboard to use in our living room with our VR setup. Currently, I have a keyboard with a short cord under the TV and while most interaction is through the VR headset and controllers from time to time I need to update things or change settings and it’s a pain to do. It also makes the current setup impossible to use for viewing media. We do use a Shield TV in the living room, but there have been a few times I wouldn’t have minded using Twitch Multistream on the PC. Well, I originally was going to use a normal wireless mouse along with a Corsair Laptop and keyboard but Corsair came out with the K83 which is a lot more compact and seems to have the potential to be perfect for couch use. So today I’m going to check it out and see what the K83 has to offer and then figure out how it worked out for our setup.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Storage
-
Published: Thursday, 16 May 2019 18:55
Western Digital reintroduced their WD Black M.2 NVMe SSD back in January with the new SN750 model. I took a look at it and was impressed once again by its performance and pricing and it won an Editor’s Choice award. At the same time as that launch, they teased their 2TB model and a new SN750 that would have a heatsink those weren’t available yet. Well, the SN750 with the heatsink is available now and I’ve had one here on my desk and on the test bench. Today I’m going to check it out and see how it is different from the standard SN750. They share the same base SSD, so my goal today is to take a look at if the heatsink really helps and if so how much. We already know the SN750 is fast, but is buying it with heatsink worth it. Let's find out!
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Input Devices
-
Published: Monday, 13 May 2019 18:36
All the way back in 2014 Logitech introduced the G502 Proteus Core. Up until that time Logitech had a very specific style which ironically they just brought back with the reintroduction of the MX518. The G502 was a complete departure and Logitech followed the G502 up with other mice and keyboards that continued the new styling. It is also their most popular gaming mouse, you can find people using the G502 all over the place. The G502 has always been a wired mouse though, today they are finally introducing a wireless G502 called the G502 Lightspeed Wireless. Logitech has been killing it with wireless mice, adding the G502 into their lineup, especially given how popular the design is, should make for an interesting mouse. I am a little concerned with the weight, the wired G502 is a little heavy. But I’ve heard that Logitech did a little work to keep
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Video Cards
-
Published: Wednesday, 01 May 2019 23:07
So the GTX 1650 launched last week and I have been a little behind the curve on getting our card tested and reviewed. The new card follows the same naming of the GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti which were launched in February and March respectively. The GTX 1650 is another Turing based GPU only this time based on the TU117 GPU and with a significantly lower TDP. Like the GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti, there isn’t a Founders Edition of the GTX 1650 so today I will be checking out the MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X, an overclocked model.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: Storage
-
Published: Wednesday, 10 April 2019 20:10
Back in January WD introduced their new WD Black SN750 SSD and I took a look at it. Its performance was extremely impressive but as I pointed out in our Crucial P1 and XPG SX6000 reviews, not everyone is looking to get the biggest and best SSD. Up until now the people looking for a cheaper drive have basically had to settle for SATA based drives. Recently though a few NVMe drives have been finally getting down into those SATA M.2 drive prices and WD has joined in as well with their new WD Blue SN500. It might not be as exciting when it comes to raw performance like the WD Black, but I am curious to see how it performs with its $54.99 price point right now for the 250GB model. So today I’m going to see what the new drive is all about, check out its performance, then see how it compares to the other cheaper NVMe drives on the market.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: PC Cases
-
Published: Tuesday, 02 April 2019 13:43
Back in 2016, I ran across a community inspired case called Sentry. It was designed in Poland as a side project by a wind turbine company. I reached out at potentially getting one in at the time but it being a side project they didn’t have any extra. It went on to have a successful Indiegogo campaign early in 2017. Well, they didn’t go away, in fact, they have been busy bringing in feedback all this time from the Sentry 1.0 owners and working on a new design. Talk about exciting! I was excited about the first design, being able to pack a true PC into a console form factor. What could they possibly have changed? Well, their changelog reads a lot like an open source software roadmap including showing what ideas they decided not to implement with reasons why. Even better, this time around for the Sentry 2.0 they made a few more test cases to spread around. You most likely have seen a few of them around YouTube and the internet by now. Well, we had a Sentry 2.0 come in as well and I’ve been playing around with it. I’m excited to finally take a closer look at this unique design and see if it was worth being excited about all this time.
Read more ...
- Details
-
Category: PC Cases
-
Published: Tuesday, 26 March 2019 13:18
A majority of the builds that I have at this point are SFF (Small Form Factor) builds but typically going SFF requires compromises. If you want something extremely fast, you are going to deal with heat. The other option is to go with one of the community made cases which are more compact and have better cooling without having to go with an ITX length video card. But they are expensive. So I was excited to see that Raijintek had a new design with a Dan Case like design with a full-length GPU on one side and the motherboard on the other. Their Ophion is also much cheaper as well and available in two size options. I was most excited for the Ophion Evo which is a little taller and adds support for a 240mm radiator. I’ve been using the Ophion Evo for a while now, you might have even seen it in our Asus Ryuo review, and today I am finally going to give the rundown on my experience with the case.
Read more ...
