Hardware News and Reviews

Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4

Vortez have reviewed the Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 memory from Ballistix, here's a snippet:

These new RGB DRAM sticks are available in 8GB and 16GB capacities and 2666MHz and 3000MHz frequencies. CAS timings are 16-18-18-38 @ 1.35v. All modules are available individually, in matched pairs or in 4-piece kits for ultimate capacity.

Today we look at the 32GB 3000MHz kit, in the form of 4x 8GB modules, priced at around £450 in the UK. These modules are fully customisable with the DDR4 Ballistix Mod Utility, giving the user full control over all 64 of the LEDs. Not only that, there’s also the ability to 3D print your own light bar which will slide into the place of the existing, supplied piece.

3000MHz is widely regarded as the “sweet spot” between price and performance in today’s DDR4 memory market, offering excellent data transfer speeds while keeping costs relatively low.
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by Becky, Apr 17, 2018

Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case

Benchmark Reviews have been taking a look at the Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case, and here's a snippet from their review:

As the successor to the Corsair Carbide 270R, the Carbide 275R brings a few new improvements to the table. It comes in four variants: black or white enclosure with an acrylic side panel, and black or white enclosure with a tempered glass panel. The plastic front panel is very simple with its brushed aluminum look, and the side panel provides a great view of the interior components. Unlike its predecessor, the Carbide 275R has its power supply chamber extend all the way towards the front with a cutout to fit up to a 360 mm radiator at the front. Benchmark Reviews has in hand the Carbide 275R in white with the tempered glass side panel.
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by Becky, Apr 16, 2018

Fortnite: Battle Royale Review

Game Spot have reviewed Fortnite: Battle Royale, and here's a snippet:

Everything about Fortnite's presentation emits a lighthearted tone. You start a match by jumping out of a party bus held up by balloons that flies across the game's massive map. Weapons, ammo, and health items litter its silly-named cities, all using alliteration--Tomato Town, Moisty Mire, Tilted Towers, to name a few. Even enemies don't really die; they're teleported away after getting knocked out. Valuable loot is found inside pinatas called supply llamas, for crying out loud. Players throw up basic structures formed out of thin air and firearms brightly express their trajectory. But don't let that first impression fool you; the further you get into a match, the more you see how Fortnite's gameplay elements have to be used in clever and complex ways to emerge victorious.
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by Becky, Apr 9, 2018

ASUS AiMesh Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System

Kit Guru have reviewed the ASUS AiMesh Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System - here's a snippet:

There’s nothing special in hardware terms that a mesh WiFi satellite has compared to a regular router. The clever stuff is being performed by the firmware. So what if you could put mesh-capable firmware onto an existing router? This is the idea behind ASUS’s AiMesh system. Although the company has a dedicated mesh system in the shape of the Lyra, AiMesh extends these abilities to a wide selection of the company’s standalone routers. You can read the list of routers on the ASUS AiMesh website, but to test the capabilities of the system we were sent the top-end ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 and more mid-range RT-AC86U.
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by Becky, Apr 4, 2018

Intel B360 vs. Z370 Chipset

Tech Spot have published their review comparing the Intel B360 against the Z370 chipset - here's a snippet:

Usually when Intel or AMD release a new mainstream CPU family, they do so with a slew of new chipsets. For example, the 7th generation Core series codenamed 'Kaby Lake' hit the ground running with 5 supporting chipsets, 3 of which you’re probably quite familiar with. AMD also released Ryzen with 3 desktop chipsets, the A320, B350 and X370.

But when Intel raced out the 8th-gen Core series 'Coffee Lake' late last year, they did so with a single chipset, the high-end Z370. This meant up until today, the most affordable Intel 300-series motherboard you could get your hands on cost around $110. Now, some six months later Intel is ready to unleash their more budget friendly chipsets which includes the B360. We also have a few H370 boards on hand, but today we’re focusing on the slightly more affordable B360 boards.

So when compared to the Z370 boards we already have, what’s missing from these cheaper B360 boards?
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by Becky, Apr 3, 2018

Intel Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK NUC

Legit Reviews have been checking out the Intel Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK NUC - here's a snippet;

The model that we’ll be taking a look at today is the flagship 100 Watt model called the NUC8i7HVK. This model has an Intel Core i7-8809G ‘Kaby Lake G’ 4-core, 8-thread processor that runs at 3.10 GHz base clock with a 4.20 GHz max turbo frequency. This processor has 16 PCIe lanes, however eight of those lanes are permanently dedicated to the Radeon Vega M GH GPU that is embedded onto the same PCB as the processor. The AMD Radeon Vega M GH GPU has 24 compute cores running at a base clock of 1063 MHz and a boost clock of up to 1190 MHz. 4GB of HBM2 memory running at 800MHz on the 1024-bit memory bit allows for 204.88 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The nice thing about this discrete graphics solution is that Intel left the processor graphics intact, so you still have Intel HD Graphics 630 (350 MHz base/1.1 GHz boost) available for use. This means you can connect up to 6 displays off the NUC thanks to the two Mini-DisplayPort 1.2, two Thunderbolt 3 and two HDMI 2.0a front and rear facing ports. If you’ve ever needed or dreamed about being able to run 6 panels from on tiny small form factor system, Hades Canyon is the answer to those needs.
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by Becky, Mar 30, 2018

Linksys VELOP Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System

Mad Shrimps have been testing out the Linksys VELOP Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, and here's a snippet from their review:

The Linksys VELOP mesh system is quite innovative, very easy to configure via the mobile application but also very stylish looking; its main purpose is to offer full wireless signal in the whole house at optimal speeds and besides the wireless connectivity it does also come with two Gigabit LAN ports for linking wired stations (such as printers, desktops, consoles, TVs and so on). Right after we have realized the setup procedure on the initial node which acts as a main router, the rest of the nodes will be added in a very simple manner, picking up the configuration automatically. If we connect to the main node and perform changes such as a new SSID name/password, the new changes will be automatically sent to the secondary and third nodes in a few minutes, without any user intervention. The mobile application is also able to change the name of the nodes (depending on the room we have them in or other custom names) or we can perform a Wi-Fi channel scan so the mesh system will move itself to the less occupied channel.
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by Becky, Mar 26, 2018

Stormforce Crystal i7 8700K GTX 1080 Ti PC

Hardware Heaven have reviewed the Stormforce Crystal i7 8700K GTX 1080 Ti PC - here's a snippet:

The Stormforce Crystal i7 8700K GTX 1080 Ti packs in top-tier components like a Core i7-8700K and a GTX 1080 Ti, but its price of £1,999 makes the Stormforce PC one of the more affordable machines we’ve seen with this kind of hardware. It’s hundreds of pounds cheaper than the PC Specialist Velocity X 01, for instance, which retailed at £2,899. It’s also a lot cheaper than the Chillblast Fusion Yogscast Ultimate, which paired the same GPU with an AMD processor at a price of £2,850. Check out our Stormforce Crystal PC review to find out if this system is a worthwhile bargain – or to see if it’s cheap but not cheerful.
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by Becky, Mar 23, 2018

Raijintek Orcus 240

Bit Tech have been testing out the Raijintek Orcus 240 liquid cooler, and here's a snippet from their review:

As the name indicates, this cooler is built around a 240mm radiator. It's a slimline aluminium model (27mm thick) with 12 channels semi-densely populated with cooling fins. Raijintek says the pipes are reinforced with Teflon as a means of reducing the evaporation rate. It even has a little bleed screw.

Moving to the tubes, we're a fan of their design. The thickness seems well-judged, and their flexibility is adequate. The outer Teflon mesh is aesthetically pleasing, we think, and again this is said to counter evaporation. The tubes are permanently fixed to the water block and radiator; this is not a cooler that can be expanded.
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by Becky, Mar 22, 2018

NVIDIA TITAN V Video Card Gaming Review

Hard OCP have published their review of the NVIDIA TITAN V video card, and here's a snippet:

First and foremost, the NVIDIA TITAN V is not a gaming-oriented video card. This is extremely important to differentiate the market segment the NVIDIA TITAN V is positioned for. The NVIDIA TITAN V at $2,999.00 is positioned for the professional workstation-class video card in the GPU-Compute environment, Deep Learning, AI and Cloud Computing. It packs a ton of CUDA Cores and a ton of Tensor Cores inside to play the role of a powerful GPU-Compute Supercomputer Accelerator. However, it can also game.
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by Becky, Mar 21, 2018

Latest Threads

Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4
Becky posted Apr 17, 2018
Corsair Carbide 275R Mid-Tower Case
Becky posted Apr 16, 2018
Fortnite: Battle Royale Review
Becky posted Apr 9, 2018
ASUS AiMesh Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System
Becky posted Apr 4, 2018
Intel B360 vs. Z370 Chipset
Becky posted Apr 3, 2018
Intel Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK NUC
Becky posted Mar 30, 2018
Linksys VELOP Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System
Becky posted Mar 26, 2018
Stormforce Crystal i7 8700K GTX 1080 Ti PC
Becky posted Mar 23, 2018
Raijintek Orcus 240
Becky posted Mar 22, 2018
NVIDIA TITAN V Video Card Gaming Review
Becky posted Mar 21, 2018

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