Microphones on gaming headsets have improved a lot over the last 3-4 years but even with those improvements the need for add-on microphones or desktop microphones has been growing. Anyone looking to create content like podcasts, videos, and streaming should be looking at a good microphone and even if you are just gaming and talking to your friends a solid microphone can help the experience. Sadly though a lot of those options are expensive and way out of reach from a starter setup. Maono reached out to me to ask if we wanted to check out their PD200X microphone which is a dynamic microphone with USB and XLR connectivity and is priced significantly lower than a lot of the household brands and I thought I would check it out. If it is a good performer having both USB and XLR make this a perfect starter microphone allowing you to upgrade from USB to a mixer in the future. The PD200X does have a little bit of RGB lighting as well for those who are into that. So today I’m going to check out the PD200X’s features then we will dive into its software and features to see if it's worth a purchase.

Over the last few years, I have been slowly updating our home/office network. I updated our access points to get full coverage in the house and outside, rebuilt a few of our servers to handle how we use them, and also get them mounted in our server rack, and with EnGenius’ help the main backbone has been updated to get 2.5G and a few 10G connections to servers and important devices. I have even cleaned up a lot of the wiring which over the years turned into a mess. The main thing left has been the switches that handle all of the network outlets throughout the house and the second switch needed for our cameras. When I moved in I went with a used switch to cover all of our network jacks but didn’t consider that it might be better to also have it support PoE, so when our cameras expanded past just a few I had to add in the second switch just for that. Both switches are dated however, one I can’t even connect to without using Internet Explorer. So an update has been a long time coming but a costly upgrade given the number of connections I need, needing PoE, and needing SFP+ to get a faster connection between switches. Having it tied in with EnGenius Cloud would also be nice given that our backbone switch and access points are all controlled there as well. Well, EnGenius was kind enough to send over the  ECS1552P Cloud 48-Port 4x10Gb 410W PoE+ Switch which fits the bill perfectly and today I’m going to check it out to see what all it has to offer as well as integrate it into our network and clean things up even farther. So let’s get to it!

With the RX 7600 and RTX 4060 Ti launches behind us now. I did have a fourth card come in around the same time. Gigabyte sent over their RTX 4070ti Gaming OC. The RTX 4070ti Gaming OC isn’t their highest-end RTX 4070 Ti, they do have the two Aurus cards as well. But it is their highest-end Gigabyte branded card which, unlike their Eagle or Windforce models, it does incorporate some RGB lighting that goes beyond just backlit branding and it is also overclocked so I’m excited to see how it compares to the other RTX 4070 Ti’s that we have taken a look at. So let’s dive in check out the card then put it to the test!

Recently I have taken a look at a few of the stock speed JEDEC DDR5 kits as well as an overclocked 6400 MHz kit as well. With those I was impressed with just how much the memory speeds and timings affected our Z790 13900K test bench in a variety of tests and games. Viper Gaming, Patriot’s gaming brand, must have seen that and thought that 6400 MHz DDR5 were a little too slow for us because they sent over two of their Venom DDR5 RGB kits, one clocked at 7200 MHz and the other at 7400 MHz to check out. So today I’m going to take a look at what the Viper kits have to offer, check out the fancy lighting, then put both to the test in our benchmark suite to see how they compare to the previously tested kits.

Cooler Master has had a wide product lineup for years now so it’s rare to come across a PC-related product that they haven’t made, especially something in the PC peripherals market. So I was surprised when they announced the new Cooler Master Storm Controller that they haven’t made a controller in the past. It is right up their alley. Either way, the timing couldn’t be better because the controller I have been using on my PC has been acting up so I’m excited to see what the new Storm Controller is all about. Let’s dive in and see what features it has to offer then check out its performance.

We are just getting used to PCIe Gen 4 SSDs and now PCIe Gen 5 have been trickling out onto the market. For that Crucial has changed up their usual naming which was all focused around their P lineup with the P5 Plus being their highest-end drive. For the new drive, however, they have changed things up to T700 to indicate the new Gen 5 drive. With the specs highlighting rear speeds of up to 12,400 MB/s and write speeds of 11,800 MB/s we are in for another huge performance increase over what we saw with PCIe Gen 4 and especially Gen 3. So today I’m going to dive in and check out the Crucial T700 Pro with and without its heatsink to see what is behind the curtain and then check out their performance including comparing what the cooling can do for you. So let’s dive in!

WWhen I think of AMD cards, Sapphire is still the first brand that comes to mind. Much like EVGA did for Nvidia for years. So with today's launch of the Radeon RX 7600, in addition to checking out the reference card which we already have done, I’ve also got the Sapphire RX 7600 Pulse. Their Pulse brand tries to bridge the gap between performance and affordability by cutting out things like RGB lighting. With a focus on 1080p performance, that is the exact mindset needed, so I’m excited to see what the Sapphire RX 7600 Pulse has to offer and to find out how the RX 7600 performs with a slight overclock and a hopefully it has better cooling performance than the reference design. So let’s dive in and see what the RX 7600 Pulse is all about. 

Yesterday the embargo lifted on the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti and today it hits store shelves, but AMD is hoping that before you consider that you take a look at their new RX 7600. Today the 7600 embargo lifts and we can dive into what it is all about and check out its performance, then it hits store shelves tomorrow. The RX 7600 is targeting the mainstream segment as well which means it is designed for 1080p performance and is priced to match the RTX 4060 which Nvidia announced for a July launch. Mainstream users can finally get excited, the next generation of cards is finally here, and with 64.52% of Steam users on the latest survey still gaming at 1080p that is still by far the largest market. So I’m excited to see how the new RX 7600 performs!

With every new generation of video cards, the latest and greatest cards are always exciting. But the truth is most people aren’t gaming at the resolutions needed to justify those cards. The latest Steam hardware survey has just 2.75% of users running a 4K display, 1440p is gaining ground at 12.49% of users. But it is still 1080p that is the most used resolution with an impressive 64.52% of users. That tells us that the power users may benefit from the highest-end cards, but for a while longer a majority of people will be better served with the mid-range of the newer lineup and we are finally starting to get into that with Nvidia’s recent announcement of the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, and the RTX 4060. The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and the RTX 4060 are scheduled for release in July, but the RTX 4060 Ti itself will be in stores tomorrow. So today I’m going to dive into the details on the card, check out the design of the Founders Edition card, and then put it to the test to see how it fits in the market right now. 

Compact M. 2-based external SSDs have been growing in popularity and it’s no wonder why. They max out the performance of USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections with crazy read and write performance, are extremely durable, and their size is a lot better than any hard drive based external option. I’ve had the chance to check out a variety of the options in the past. Alongside of them, some companies make M.2 external enclosures that do all of the same things, but you just add your own drive inside. They are a nice option to use an old SSD or offer you the chance to be able to upgrade later. Viper, the gaming brand of Patriot has had a few including their latest Viper VXD which I’m going to check out today.

For those of you who have been around for a while, you will most likely know that I have had a thing for small form factor builds going back before small form factor builds were a thing. We did our Lunchbox build series starting 14 years ago when we were building in a Shuttle. The options for compact builds with video cards have improved significantly over the years and a few companies have played big roles in that including Fractal with their Node 202 which helped bring the “console” form factor into the mainstream with a reasonably priced case option. Well, the Fractal Ridge is the first time that Fractal has been back to that form factor and while I am late to the party, I’m excited to see what they have changed. Especially now with PCIe 4.0 risers being available which address compatibility issues that some people ran into. So let's dive into the Ridge and see what it is all about and build a system in it to get the full experience.

With the Intel launch being stacked up so close with AMDs CPU launch as well as GPU launches from AMD and Nvidia as well late last year I didn’t get the chance to check out too much more as far as any of the other new LGA motherboards. This is especially true with some of the other chipsets and ITX boards. So with a little time this spring, I thought why not check some out and MSIs MPG B760I Edge WiFi fit the bill perfectly. We can check out the B760 and also check out an ITX board, perfect for a compact LAN-friendly build. So today I’m going to see what features MSI has given the board, check out its BIOS and performance, then see how it fits in the market price wise. So let’s dive in and see what it is all about.

It's been interesting to see Anker slowly move into the off-grid market with their Anker Powerhouse lineup which goes well beyond what a small battery backup is capable of as far as power storage and even includes AC outlets and capable solar charging as well. This is perfect for people who are camping but I would also lump in people with large properties/farms where getting power everywhere isn’t possible and also people in the trades which may not have power available where they are working. Anker’s latest product falls into this same category, their EverFrost Powered Coolers integrate large battery capacity into a powered cooler to keep things cool or frozen for up to 42 hours depending on the size you go with. With summer coming up I can’t think of a better time to be able to put one to use, so today I’m going to check out the new EverFrost Powered Cooler 40 which is the 43L capacity to see what it is all about.

We've been working with Noctua for 10 years now and while they have been really consistent with the product lineup they still manage to innovate and surprise us with new products. That has been especially true in the past year where they've introduced a fanless heatsink and a variety of different accessories going as far as even bringing out their own screwdrivers as well as new small form factor coolers like the NH-L9a-AM5 for AM5 chipsets. Frankly, it's been hard to keep up, but I wanted to take a little time and check out what Noctua has been up to this past year and catch up a little bit. So today we're going to check out both NH-L9a-AM5 coolers, NH-P1 fanless heat sink, their inlet spacers and gaskets, the amp thermal paste guard, and new screwdrivers to see what everything is all about.

This past January I took a look at eufy security's new eufy Security Video Smart Lock which integrated video doorbell features with a smart lock and I was really happy with the device but sadly it didn’t fit our unique front door so it was put to use on our detached garage. Being able to come and go through the garage with just a fingerprint or a code has been great but it has made one thing really obvious, we need the same setup on the back door of the house so we can come and go while keeping things locked up and never having to get our keys out. An integrated doorbell or video camera wasn’t needed so I set my eyes on the E130 Smart Lock Touch which has the fingerprint sensor and keypad at a much lower price. I’ve finally done it and today I’m going to check out the E130 to see what is different about it and find out if it's worth getting if you want to come and go easily from the house this summer.

Nvidia’s 4000 Series of cards has seen big performance increases, especially the RTX 4090 flagship card but you do pay a premium for them. Nvidia makes up for that when it comes to ray tracing performance and especially with DLSS which the 4000 Series cards are the only way you can get DLSS 3. DLSS 3 has improved on the already popular tech and with frame generation it offers huge performance improvements on the games that support it. That game list has been growing quickly and the latest is Redfall. Redfall is the latest game from Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda. Arkane Studios is known for the Dishonored series and Prey. Redfall is a first-person shooter with single-player and four-player co-op and is based around vampires who have blacked out the sun and cut the citizens off from the outside world. I’ve been playing it some over the weekend ahead of the launch and wanted to check out how DLSS 3 performs on the game so I put it to the test on the new cards.

In recent years, for a lot of people, one of the biggest go-to suggestions for memory has been the G.Skill brand. They have been reliable, had great compatibility, have a lifetime warranty, and are almost always a reasonable option price-wise. Sadly we haven’t had too many in the office for review other than a few kits sent alongside launch kits. With DDR5 gaining traction and pricing coming down I’m excited to get a look at a kit that G.Skill sent over which is their Ripjaws S5 kit, and the model they sent over is the 6400 MT/s 2x16GB kit. Today I’m going to check out what the Ripjaw S5 kit has going on and then put it through a few tests to see how it performs then we can find out how it fits in the market price-wise. So let’s dive in!

I’ve had the chance to check out a variety of products from EnGenius and have been happy enough with them to implement them into my own network from their switches to inside and outside access points. But Engenius has been clear about their EnGenius Cloud lineup from the start, that lineup is focused on enterprise or medium-sized businesses and their pricing has also reflected that. They did however recently introduce a new lineup that they call the EnGenius Fit which targets small businesses and high-end home networks. This has been a growing market and it is exciting to see because the new Fit lineup takes a lot of what we have seen with other EnGenius products but with the small business and enthusiast focus the pricing is more in line with competitors like the Ubiquiti Unifi and Link Omada lineups. The EnGenius Fit lineup can be cloud-based or managed locally and is subscription free as well. So I’m excited to see what the new lineup is all about by checking out the EWS377-FIT, their WiFi 6 4x4 indoor AP. 

With the initial launch of DDR5, the main kit you could find and what was also sent out from Intel in their launch kits was the 4800 MT/s kit from Crucial. While it isn’t a crazy overclocked kit with crazy looking heatspreaders, it was a simple kit that got the job done. Well, Crucial has expanded that lineup recently with 5200 MT/s and 5600 MT/s kits. They have the same simple styling but have stepped up the speeds while also offering a variety of densities. Today I’m going to check out both speeds in 16GB densities with 2 x 32GB kits to see how they compare with the original 4800 MT/s kit so let's dive in and check them out.

I'm late to the game as far as the Steam Deck goes. I originally had one pre-ordered but canceled it last minute because I wasn't sure that my wife and I would put it to use. We'll the recent anniversary sale was enough to push us over the edge and pick one up. Being a little late to the party, however, means there are a lot more accessories available. Today I'm going to check out a few Steam Deck accessories to find out if any are must-have pickups for your new Steam Deck purchase or an upgrade ahead of summer where you might be traveling.