Hardware News and Reviews

D-Link DSP-W118 Wi-Fi Smart Outlet

BigBruin take a look at the D-Link DSP-W118, a compact smart outlet that lets you control appliances via WiFi:

Over the years we have done quite a few D-Link reviews but the majority of these devices were their networking gear and IP cameras. But way back in 2014 we took a look at their smart outlet and motion sensor. Recently they sent over their latest smart outlet (DSP-W118) which is considerably smaller than the old one and their water sensor (DCH-S161) which you can see reviewed here. They have also added to the smart home platform an outdoor outlet, a door/window sensor and an updated motion sensor. Let's see how this new outlet performs.
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Read the review here:
https://bigbruin.com/cms/review.php/DLink-DSP-W118_1?articlename=DLink-DSP-W118_1
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by Ian, Feb 19, 2020

Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT

Hexus.net have a review of the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT, a high end keyboard costing around $200:

At launch, the K95 RGB Platinum XT will be available with a choice of three Cherry MX switches. Speed RGB Silver (45g actuation force, 1.2mm actuation distance), RGB Brown (55g actuation force, 2.0mm actuation distance) or RGB Blue (60g actuation force, 2.2mm actuation distance). A healthy variety, and while the clicky feel of our Blue review unit feels instantly recognisable, it is worth pointing out that the Speed Silver and Brown options incorporate an updated design that doubles the expected lifetime to 100-million keystrokes.

Upgraded switches deserve better keycaps and Corsair obliges with a PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) double-shot set carrying a textured finish said to aid grip. The keycap walls measure 1.5mm thick, lending a sense of greater stability, and the use of a white inner layer and black outer surface helps prevent signs of shine and wear after prolonged use. The only exceptions are the G-keys to the left of the keyboard, which continue to rely on a laser-etched finish.
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Read the review here:
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/peripherals/138365-corsair-k95-rgb-platinum-xt/
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Views: 822 / Likes: 1 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Jan 7, 2020

The Best PC Games of 2019

Bit-Tech have an article covering the best PC Games of 2019, with plenty of games on the list that I've only just heard of. It's worth a read:

No pithy preamble this time around. 2019 has been an incredible year for games. Out of the eleven titles that made it into our Games of the Year list, seven of them received our “Outstanding” award, the highest that we offer to those virtual toyboxes we love so much. It’s a year that has lacked many familiar franchise names, like Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed, and DOOM. Believe me when I say this is a good thing.

Indeed, this year the quality has been so stellar, with such a surprising mixture of mainstream, AA, and independent games that many of our favourite titles ended up ranking much lower on the list than we anticipated, while a few still-great games didn’t make it onto the list at all. Like I said, it’s been quite the year.
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See the full list here:
https://bit-tech.net/features/gaming/pc/the-best-games-of-2019/1/
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by Ian, Dec 17, 2019

New CPU launches for November 2019

Both AMD and Intel are about to shake up the CPU market once more, with new CPUs and pricing announced this month from both major CPU makers:

Unlike the battle between Skylake-X refresh CPUs and their 2nd Gen Threadripper counterparts, though, Intel's Cascade Lake-X price drops and AMD's slight price hikes for the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X as well as lack (so far) of 12- or 16-core parts mean that, in my view, the two are no longer really competing directly with each other - Intel's Cascade Lake-X flagship will be around $1,000 for 18 cores, while AMD's starting point will be 24 cores at $1,400. The two associated platforms will also offer distinct reasons to buy into them. Starting with AMD's new HEDT lineup, it's fairly clear now that it will hold the high ground and offer more performance than Intel can muster. If AMD has managed to sort out the previous WX-series' shortcomings, the new chips could finally be far better all-rounders too with genuinely good performance in games and lightly-threaded tasks and not just more grunt in multi-threaded applications.
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Bit-Tech have the full article here:
https://bit-tech.net/blogs/tech/cpus/novembers-cpu-launches-will-redraw-battle-lines/1/
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Views: 1,485 / Likes: 1 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Nov 14, 2019

A look inside AMD's 64-Core EPYC and Ryzen CPUs

HardwareLuxx have an interesting article which takes a detailed look a AMDs 64-core CPU die, with some really interesting images. The article is in German, so please use your browsers translate feature:

Our forum member OC_Burner is usually the supplier of such chips or dieshots and has now got an engineering sample of a current EPYC processor and placed it under the microscope. First of all, he has limited himself to a transillumination by means of near infrared light, because even then gives the silicon, which is partially transparent for such wavelength, first details. As I said, we already know the CCDs and IODs of the new Ryzen processors. However, we could not take a look at the IOD of an EPYC processor.
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Read the article here:
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.p...istoren-ein-rome-iod-zeigt-seine-details.html
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Views: 1,508 / Likes: 1 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Oct 23, 2019

Inno3D GeForce RTX 2080 Super iChiLL Black

Hexus review the Inno3D GeForce RTX 2080 Super iChiLL Black graphics card, which comes with a full 280mm radiator based cooling solution:

Having an external cooling solution enables Inno3D to produce a reasonably small, compact card. Measurements of 272mm long, 112mm high, and fitting into a strict dual-slot form factor are common amongst this range. That's all well and good, but you obviously need room to house the radiator and fans, and it's no surprise to learn the cooling is actually bigger than the card, coming in at 280mm long, 120mm high, and 60mm thick (including dual 120mm fans). 350mm of sleeved tubing from card to radiator is relatively bendable, though we'd recommend at least a mid-tower case for decent clearance between components.

It's handy that everything is self-contained and enclosed. Simply attach the usual 8+6-pin power connectors, screw in the card and radiator, and you are good to go. No faffing around with additional cables and splitters. This isn't some in-house-developed cooler, mind, as Inno3D makes no bones about teaming up with specialists Arctic for the iChiLL Black Edition cards. Most of the cooling know-how appears to come from the Liquid Freezer 240mm CPU model.
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Read the rest of the review here:
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/135611-inno3d-geforce-rtx-2080-super-ichill-black/
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Views: 1,425 / Likes: 0 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Oct 15, 2019

AMD Ryzen 5 3400G APU

Think Computers review the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G APU, a budget CPU (with built in GPU) which would be very suited to entry level gaming machine:

On the gaming-side I was very surprised by the 3400G. In the past with integrated graphics they were there, but you really couldn’t play anything you actually wanted to play with them. With the 3400G I was playing many of the games I play on a daily basis like Apex Legends and it was very playable and enjoyable. It did take me a little bit to get used to playing at 1080p and lower frame rates (I normally game with a 2080 Ti and 144 Hz monitor), but after a few rounds I was doing just fine. If you look at our graphics results we were able to get between 40 and 65 FPS in most esports titles at 1080p and those numbers only go up if you move down to 720p.
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Read the rest here:
https://thinkcomputers.org/amd-ryzen-5-3400g-apu-review/
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by Ian, Oct 8, 2019

QSAN XCubeNAS XN7008RE NAS

NikkTech check out the QSAN XCubeNAS XN7008RE NAS, an 8-bay 2u rack device which utilises a Intel Core i3-7100 dual-core processor:

Even though the XCubeNAS XN7008RE is far from the top of the line model in the 2U rackmount line of NAS servers by QSAN still its specifications are nothing short of impressive so under the hood we find the 7th generation Intel Core i3-7100 dual-core processor (clocked at 3.9GHz / 3MB Smart Cache / 51W TDP) together with two 4GB DDR4-2133 memory modules (8GB - expandable to 64GB). The XN7008RE also features a total of 8 drive bays (up to 200 via expansion units) which can accommodate both 2.5"/3.5" drives and can be configured in RAID 0/RAID 1/RAID 5/RAID 5 + hot spare/RAID 6/RAID 10/RAID Z3/RAID 60/JBOD with support for up to 128TB of total storage (this is calculated based on the highest capacity models at the time of this review - 16TB / up to 3200TB with expansion units). Other features include a total of 5 USB ports (1xUSB 2.0 / 4xUSB 3.0), 4 RJ45 Ethernet ports, HDMI output (for service/debug purposes), two PCIe expansion slots (x4/x8), two SAS 12Gb/s ports and two 250W replaceable/redundant power supply units. Finally, just like with all NAS models by QSAN to date the XCubeNAS XN7008RE runs a 128-bit ZFS (Zeta-byte) file system via a custom Linux kernel (QSAN Storage Management v3) and is covered by a 3 year limited warranty.
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Read the rest here:
https://www.nikktech.com/main/artic...0324-qsan-xcubenas-xn7008re-nas-server-review
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Views: 1,967 / Likes: 1 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Sep 13, 2019

Biostar Racing X570GT8 Motherboard

TomsHardware review the Biostar Racing X570GT8 Motherboard, an X570 chipset based board with 3 x m.2. slots:

The Biostar X570GT8’s $230 MSRP places it in the lower range of all X570 boards. We had an overall positive experience in building and testing, although our overclocking results were just a tik lower than the other X570 motherboards we looked at so far.

Performance was where we expected it to be, trading blows with other X570 boards, so no complaints there. The BIOS is a little different than the other AIBs, with the tweaking section (O.N.E) at the far right instead of the left side where we normally see it. If you are using multiple PCIe NVMe drives, the three full speed slots and heatsinks are a welcome sight.
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Read the rest here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/biostar-x570gt8-atx-motherboard,6282.html
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by Ian, Aug 19, 2019

Gigabyte Aorus CV27F Monitor

Hot Hardware review the Gigabyte Aorus CV27F monitor, which supports FreeSync-2 and has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD):

Out of the box the CV27F has a premium feel. Both the stand and base are made of a powder-coated hefty metal, and assembly is a snap. The top and side bezels are relatively small, but there's just enough space at the top for us to comfortably mount our Logitech C525 webcam without overlapping the top few rows of pixels. The bottom bezel is a bit bigger, and has an Aorus logo emblazoned across the center. There's a tiny, low-power LED to indicate when the display is on, though it can be disabled is you don't like the distraction. We didn't feel the need to turn it off, however, since the output is pretty dim.
Read more at https://hothardware.com/reviews/aorus-cv27f-review-27-165-hz-curved-gaming-bliss#Fg6kHSPikQQFkJBW.99
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Read the rest here:
https://hothardware.com/reviews/aorus-cv27f-review-27-165-hz-curved-gaming-bliss
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Views: 2,101 / Likes: 0 / Replies: 0

by Ian, Aug 12, 2019

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