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Category: Storage
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Published: Monday, 24 July 2023 12:06
Lexar has been doing a great job of getting a nice variety in their SSD product stack while they haven’t brought out a PCIe 5.0 drive just yet and with that, they have also been competitive in pricing as well. Having already established their name in the storage market with their SD cards for years now they are also on the short list of brands that you can pick from when looking at SSDs and at least know what you are getting. They did just recently announce a new PCIe 4.0 drive that they are positioning to run against the WD SN770 and the Crucial P3 Plus. The NM710 is their latest entry-level drive that goes with their NM620 which is their PCIe 3.0 drive. Today I’m going to check out the NM710 and see what makes it tick as well as put it to the test so we can see how it fits in the market as well as check out its pricing to make sure it fits there as well. So let’s dive in and see what the Lexar NM710 is all about.
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Category: Other
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Published: Friday, 21 July 2023 06:30
The AOC CQ27G3Z just recently hit the market and it is a 27-inch QHD (1440p) gaming monitor which has a 1000R curvature VA panel. It has a 240Hz refresh rate, a 0.5 ms MPRT, and supports FreeSync Premium hitting most of the important gaming features. But with this being from the AOC brand, not their higher-end Agon brand we can see that this is a display that they are targeting to be more budget-friendly. The 27-inch 1440p 140Hz display market has mostly had displays in the $699 and up range so a little relief is more than welcomed. Today I’m going to check out the rest of what the AOC CQ27G3Z has to offer and determine if it is as good of a value as AOC is hoping it will be.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 20 July 2023 09:06
Lian Li has been doing a great job in the fan market with their Infinity lineup both aesthetically with their multiple lighting options as well as with their recent addition of their P28 fans as well as a performance option. Their AIO cooler lineup had some hiccups. They are back at it again though with their new Galahad II AIO cooler lineup which is launching today and they don’t just have one cooler they have a whole variety with ten different variations with three different Cooler designs, 340 and 360 sizes on two of the three as well as both black and white color options. The new Galahad II Trinity design has a few different ways the pump can be configured as well. Lots of ways to customize. Today I am going to check out the Galahad II Trinity SL-INF 360 as well as the Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 which should give us a good look at the new design as well as check out their performance as well. So let’s dive in!
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Category: Video Cards
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Published: Tuesday, 18 July 2023 20:25
With the original Radeon RX 7900 XTX launch, I had the chance to check out the reference 7900 XTX and was impressed with its performance but our card did run hot. With the 7900 XT I have had the chance to check out aftermarket cards, but for the 7900 XTX, I haven’t. So when I had the chance to check out the PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 XTX I jumped at the chance. I’m really curious how improved cooling and an overclock will change performance, on top of that 7900 XTXs are now more available and selling for less than the original $999 MSRP the Hellhound can be found for $949 so today I’m going to check out what makes the Hellhound special, put it to the test to see how it compares, and then reevaluate how it fits in the market now that prices have dropped. Let’s dig in!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 14 July 2023 17:23
Lian Li has taken the fan market by storm with their Uni-Fan lineup. A lot of that is just offering a simple design that cuts out a lot of the wiring needed with RGB fans. But they have also been creative with their different designs offering multiple different RGB designs. The one thing that is missing from their lineup are performance-focused fans, something that can compete with companies like Noctua and Be Quiet. Lian Li has filled that gap in their lineup with their new Uni Fan P28 fans which are noise and performance-oriented and also have fluid dynamic bearings. They still have the other uni-fan specific features like daisy changing and how they handle their wiring. So today I’m going to check out the P28 fans to see what they are all about.
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Category: Smart Home
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Published: Tuesday, 11 July 2023 09:45
Keeping your floors clean is a lot more than just sweeping or vacuuming up the dust and dirt that you see, it is really easy to just get the dust and dirt and ignore things until something is spilled. Then of course it isn’t just a simple once-over with the mop. I’m bad with this, even though I want to keep our floors clean I would also prefer to spend my time doing something else. Because of that, I’ve been considering getting something to simplify things like a steam mop to sanitize and clean but a lot of the options out there just use microfiber pads and I don’t have any interest in having to replace them constantly. Eufy recently announced their Mach V1 and the Mach V1 Ultra which both combine a vacuum design that has a brush to pick up dirt and also scrubs. The Mach V1 Ultra then also adds in steam as well, covering everything I was looking for, but how well does it work? Well, today I’m going to check out what the Mach V1 Ultra has to offer and then see how it performs.
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Category: Power Supplies
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Published: Monday, 10 July 2023 07:05
This past March I took a look at the new Dark Power 13 from Be Quiet!, their first ATX 3.0 power supply. I have been planning on upgrading the power supply on our test bench to a new high-power PSU that is ATX 3.0 with the new 12VHPWR connection. The Dark Power 13 850W fit that bill but was a little low in power for the test bench. But Be Quiet! now has their Dark Power Pro 13 models which sit above the standard Dark Power 13 models with their 1300-watt and 1600-watt capacities. At those wattages, I don’t see us ever lacking power, and being from Be Quiet noise and quality shouldn’t be an issue. But before it gets put into use, let’s check it out and see what the Dark Power Pro 1600 Watt is all about.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 07 July 2023 14:20
When I think of Be Quiet! fans, like with their coolers, I think of extremely high-quality noise-focused black fans with no lighting. But they don’t stick with that, they have had a few white models in the mix for years now and two years ago they also came out with their Light Wings series of fans which have aRGB lighting. When they launched I didn’t check them out even though I should have but back then when on a call with Be Quiet! I did talk to them about seeing them in white. Well now is the time, their new Light Wings White fans are out and they have both 120mm and 140mm fan sizes as well as regular and high-speed models. Today I’m going to check out both sizes of the high-speed models and see what they are all about.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 06 July 2023 14:12
Corsair has been one of the leading brands to get an all-in-one cooler for 14 years now and that hasn’t changed. Their lineup seems consistent because of the base naming like the H100i but they do stay on top of updates with different variations. In February they launched their new iCue Capellix XT which is available in both the H100i and H150i sizes, or in other words in 240mm and 360mm variations. The new XT model has new Corsair AF RGB ELITE fans and the pump also has 33 capellix LEDs in the cap. Both allow Corsair to do what they are best at, which is of course crazy RGB lighting. Today I’m going to check out the Capellix XT and see what it is all about, check out its performance, and see where it fits in the market these days. So let’s dive in and see what it is all about!
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Category: Networking
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Published: Tuesday, 04 July 2023 11:42
This year marks 10 years now that I have been running the same PFSense-based router, I moved to it after seeing how well PFSense performed for our LAN events and after having issues with the basic router that I was previously using. In that time it has been solid but 10 years on the same hardware has had me questioning if I should change things up at all but it hasn’t been a priority at all. I did however recently notice that PF Sense hasn’t had an update for their community edition going all the way back to January of 2022, combine that with the fact that EnGenius recently introduced their new gateways and I thought this couldn’t be a better time to branch out and try out other options. So today I’m going to take a look at the EnGenius ESG510 to see what it is all about.
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Category: Video Cards
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Published: Thursday, 29 June 2023 09:00
Yesterday Nvidia lifted the embargo on the MSRP-priced RTX 4060 cards ahead of the RTX 4060 hitting the store today. Now that it is available in stores we can now also talk about the other models as well. ZOTAC GAMING sent over their RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition which is similar to the Twin Edge White Edition of the RTX 3060 that I previously took a look at. Today I’m going to dive in and see what ZOTAC GAMING has going on with their new card then put it through our test suite to see how it performs.
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Category: Video Cards
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Published: Wednesday, 28 June 2023 09:01
At the end of last month, both Nvidia and AMD launched their first cards targeted specifically at gamers who are gaming at 1080p. While the resolution’s use is dropping (very slowly at -.19%), 1080p is still by far the most widely used resolution. This is supported by the Steam hardware survey having 64.33% of users running the resolution. Having cards focused on the resolution is a big deal and xx60 cards from Nvidia dominate the top of the charts with five out of the top ten cards on Steams survey being xx60 and the rest being xx50 or xx60 Ti which are also in the same range. Nvidia’s previously launched RTX 4060 Ti was targeted as a higher-end 1080p card, well tomorrow the RTX 4060, which was announced alongside the 4060 Ti, will hit stores and today we can check out how it performs. With an MSRP of $299, I’m excited to see how well it will perform and see how it fits into today's market so let’s dive in and check it out.
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Category: Input Devices
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Published: Monday, 26 June 2023 09:21
Seeing Cooler Master celebrate their 30th anniversary this year can’t help but make me feel a little old. It feels like just yesterday we were at CES with them for their 20th anniversary. For their 30th they announced and now have brought out a few different products themed in unique Cooler Master purple and turquoise, this includes their MK721 which came out two years ago but even though I love compact keyboards I didn’t end up covering them. Today I’m going to check it out, it gives us a chance to see what the MK721 is all about and check out what they have done to make it the 30th Anniversary Edition.
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Category: Games
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Published: Wednesday, 21 June 2023 13:24
I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone that Diablo 4 in the short period of time that it has been out has been extremely popular. It is Blizzards fastest selling game and I know early on the login queues were crazy. It is also by far the most popular game that supports DLSS 3 of the current 37 games on Nvidia’s always helpful game listing. With that, I can’t think of a better game to check out DLSS 3 performance on to see what kind of performance improvement you can expect. This also means I will get a look at how the new RTX 4000 Series cards perform on the game as well. So let’s dive in and see what the numbers look like.
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Category: Input Devices
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Published: Monday, 19 June 2023 15:38
While I have always been a mouse and keyboard fan, some games work best when using a controller. Especially with so many games being ported over from consoles to PC. Over the years I have tried different options designed for the PC specifically but the console controllers have always been more complete and have better build quality. I have been curious about what some of the higher-end controllers are like. Today I’m going to check out the Reflex from Scuff Gaming. The Reflex is their PS5 controller which means it will work with the PS5 and it is Bluetooth so it can work on Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android as well. Scuf Gaming offers the Reflex in three variations by default but also has full customization as well which is where our controller came from. So today I’m going to talk about the customization experience and then dive in and check out the controller we picked out.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 16 June 2023 09:04
The higher-end CPUs these days need a crazy amount of cooling to keep things running cool and fast and the easiest way to do that has been to go with an All-In-One cooler. These are also the quickest way to integrate some lighting into your build as well with some of the AIO coolers having RGB fans and or RGB on their pumps. Enermax’s Aquafusion Adv lineup has both and is available in black or white and in 120, 240, and 360 configurations. This year we did upgrade our test bench from Z690 with the 12900K up to the Z790 with the 13900K, what better way than to start our cooler testing by testing out two of the Enermax Aquafusion Adv coolers as well as one of their air coolers, the ETS-F40-FS ARGB, so today I’m going to check out all three then put them all to the test to see how they perform with the always demanding 13900K.
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Category: Audio
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Published: Wednesday, 14 June 2023 09:25
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.
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Category: Networking
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Published: Monday, 12 June 2023 07:39
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!
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Category: Video Cards
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Published: Thursday, 08 June 2023 07:21
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!
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Category: Pc-hardware
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Published: Tuesday, 06 June 2023 10:04
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.
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