Quiet and Beautiful

AVADirect wasn’t really a systems builder on our radar until late last year when we reviewed their Avant Mini Cube Gaming PC. After extensive testing, we found that the system was well configured, well built, and well priced, quickly propelling AVADirect to the top as one of our favorite custom PC builders.

Recently, AVADirect sent us another one of the systems in their lineup, the AVADirect X370 Quiet Gaming PC, which as its name implies is AVADirect’s quiet gaming PC offering based on AMD’s X370 Ryzen platform.

AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC Specs Desktop AVADirect X370 Quiet Gaming PC Case Phanteks Eclipse [...]

Earlier this week, AMD addressed some key questions regarding its upcoming Ryzen APUs.

To set most at ease, the APUS will be fully compatible with AM4 motherboards, with only a BIOS updated needed for newer CPU support. This lowers the cost of entry into the Ryzen platform, with tremendous upgrade options available later on.

Zen APUs are coming in Febuary which feature the Global Foundries 14nm process found in the current generation Ryzen CPUs. Both models will feature quad cores, but the Ryzen 5 2400G features SMT, a base clock of 3.6GHz/boost clock of 3.9GHz and 11 Vega CUs for $169. The Ryzen 3 2200G will lack SMT, be clocked at 3.5GHz/ boosts [...]

Dell’s XPS 13 ultrabook just received a significant performance upgrade and enhanced asthetics.

The new XPS 13 now uses Intel’s 8th gen Quad-core i5-8250 and i7-8550 CPUs. The CPUs have a baseline TDP of 15W, but can be configured for to up to 25W. Dell states that the new cooling solution in the new XPS 13 can handle up to 27W, so it’s likely that the CPUs had their TDPs increased accordingly. Despite the robust cooling, the weight of the is kept at  just 2.67 lbs.

The Dell XPS packs a display that guarantees a peak brightness of 400nits. It covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut and 72% of the Adobe RGB color gamut. Full HD and 4K [...]

Rumors are abound that Nvidia may be gearing up to release a variant of the GeForce GTX 1060 with 5GB GDDR5 of memory. This new card will be strictly targeted towards the Chinese PC cafe market.

The new variant is rumored to feature a new GP106-350 GPU core. It features the same 1,280 CUDA cores as the GP106-400 in the GTX 1060 6GB, but will feature a narrower 160 bit memory bus which will help reduce cost.

In addition to shaving off 1GB of memory, the card is also rumored to use less robust packaging to save cost. This won’t matter though, since this card is targeted towards internet cafes rather than off the shelf retail. No word on pricing or [...]

Razer today launched two new peripherals dedicated to streamers: the Razer Kiyo camera and the Razer Siren X microphone.

Razer Kiyo

The Razer Kiyo camera aims to solve the problem of streamer’s faces not getting enough light. By attaching a ring light around the camera, it offers an effective, hassle free way of making the streamer more visible.

The camera has a 4MP sensor and can record video at up to 1080p at 30fps, or still images at 2,688x1520p. The field of view is a narrow-ish at 81.6°, but that’s more than enough for most stationary streamers. The Kiyo sits on a L-shaped joint that attaches to your monitor or an optional [...]

For those waiting patiently for the latest installment in the highly popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft recently released system requirements for the PC version of the game so you can make preparations to play when it launches on October 27.

Assassin’s Creed Origins which will be set in ancient Egypt is expected to feature the largest worlds in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-2400s @ 2.5 GHz or AMD FX-6350 @ 3.9 GHz or equivalent VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX660 or AMD R9 270 (2048 MB [...]

Google Pixel 2 XL

It’s been a year since Google’s “Made by Google” event and it appears that Google is still very serious about their entry into the hardware market. At their latest “Made by Google” event, Google recently released the highly anticipated Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones, the successor to the highly successful Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones launched last year.

The new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are fairly similar in design to the originals however, have significantly updated specifications and some unique software enhancements which differentiate them from [...]

Introduction

Several months ago, we reviewed the Thinkware X550 and walked away quite impressed. While some of the driver safety features were a bit more gimmicky than Thinkware would have you believe and the pricetag is relatively higher than competing dashcams on the market, the Thinkware X550 still proved to be an excellent dashcam with great picture quality and more importantly the ability to record well at night which is an issue for many of the cheaper dashcams on the market.

New for the company this time around is the Thinkware F800, which is the new flagship in the Thinkware F-series dashcams. Unlike the Thinkware X-series dashcams, the F-series are more [...]

64-Layer 3D NAND, USB 3.1 Gen 2

Last year I was fortunate enough to be among the first to review the Samsung T3 Portable SSD. The drive was small, durable, fast, available in capacities up to 2TB, and relatively good looking making it not only my favorite portable SSD, but also my most highly recommended as well.

Of course, with Samsung’s annual release cycles, Samsung recently launched the new Samsung T5 Portable SSD which we’ll be reviewing today.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Specifications Manufacturer Samsung Model T5 Capacity 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB Interface Type-C USB 3.1 (Gen 2), USB 3.0, USB 2.0 Transfer Speed Up to [...]