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Thanks to Rezin amd t1mbot this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 22-September-2017 11:50:08 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
EVGA X299 Micro on Hardware Asylum.
Supermicro Z270 C7Z270-CG on Funky Kit.
MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC on Anandtech.
Storage:
Plextor M8Se 256GB & 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD on TweakTown.
TerraMaster F2-420 2-Bay Quad-Core NAS on Legit Reviews.
Input etc:
CHERRY B.UNLIMITED 3.0 Keyboard & Mouse Kit on Madshrimps.
iKBC F108 RGB Keyboard on techPowerUp.
Gigabyte Aorus K7 keyboard and Aorus M3 mouse on Guru3D.
Corsair K70 LUX RGB on Vortez.
Cases:
Thermaltake View 31 Tempered Glass RGB Edition on Hexus.
RAIJINTEK Asterion Classic Aluminum Chassis on Modders-Inc.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 on Phoronix.
Cooler Master MasterFan Pro RGB Fan and RGB Controller on OC Inside.
Reeven Kiran RGB 120mm Fan on Modders-Inc.
Systems:
AVADirect BattleBox Ultimate X370 Gaming System on ThinkComputers.
HP Omen Desktop PC on Techspot.
Misc:
TP-Link Archer C3150 Dual-Band Wireless Router on TweakTown.
Philips BDM4037UW 40-Inch Curved 4K UHD LCD Display on NikKTech.
Moto Z2 Play on Hot Hardware.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 21-September-2017 14:25:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I wasn't aware of this lawsuit between Asetek and Cooler Master, but it seems a court has sided with CM for now. Back in April 2017, Cooler Master lost a dispute in the court against Asetek, a company that specializes in CPU and GPU liquid solutions over patent infringement. As result, Cooler Master is required to compensate a huge sum of $600,000 for violating U.S. patents 8240362 and 8245764 which belonged to Asetek. However, the table has turned in the favor of Cooler Master, as the court in the Hague has annulled a European patent of Asetek for water cooling in the Netherlands because of lack of inventiveness.
Tech Report have a system guide posted. Ryzen 3, Ryzen Threadripper, new Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs, and a tectonic shift in graphics card pricing have made for a tumultuous couple of months in the world of DIY PCs. We're here to help navigate these turbulent waters with a new System Guide.
Tweaktown looked into Threadripper's hardware modes. We spend time investigating and testing AMD's various hardware modes for its Threadripper CPU to see what difference they make it performance.
If you like large scale free-battle games, you'll be happy to know that Battle Royale will be free from the 26th of September. The team at Epic is excited to announce that Fortnite Battle Royale will be available for FREE beginning September 26! The Fortnite Battle Royale mode takes the gameplay of battle royale games and adds all of the action-building pieces unique to Fortnite. This 100-player PvP world will allow you to locate weapons and supplies, destroy enemy cover, drop traps, and build your way to victory.
While I'm here, it seems that Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is free on Humble Bundle at the moment, too. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee® is provided via Steam key for Windows. For key redemption, a free Steam account is required. Discussion in this thread.
Finally, a few people pointed out that eBay Australia are celebrating their 18th Birthday by offering 18% off site-wide tonight only. Conditions apply, obviously.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 20-September-2017 14:27:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
AMD X399 TR4 Threadripper Motherboard Buyer's Guide on Tweaktown.
AMD A12-9800 Review: Infecting The AM4 Platform on TechSpot.
GIGABYTE AX370 Gaming K7 AM4 Motherboard on HardOCP.
Power Supply:
Seasonic PRIME 650 Platinum on HardOCP.
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W on HardOCP.
Audio Visual:
HyperX Cloud Revolver S on TechPowerUp.
SilverStone Ensemble EBA02 Headphone Holder on APHNetworks.
Cases:
Riotoro Prism CR1280 Full Tower RGB on Guru3D.
Thermaltake View 28 RGB Riing Edition on Vortez.
Misc:
The $12 RGB Strip For Your Monitor on ThinkComputers.
PUBG CPU Core Benchmarks – How Many Cores Do You Need on LegitReviews.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 on HotHardware.
8K benched: RX Vega 64 vs. GTX 1080 Ti vs. TITAN Xp SLI on Tweaktown.
ROCCAT Isku+ Force FX Gaming Keyboard on Modders-Inc.
Tuesday Aaaarrrrrvo News
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Tuesday, 19-September-2017 15:12:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Avast, mateys! I've not done a piratey news post since 2013, but those mangy curs Straylight and vellanet reminded me that today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and now there even seems to be an Australian version, so open up your buccaneers and listen..
If you've downloaded CCleaner in the last month, beware the malware it was spreadin', lest it scuttle your PC: Now this is an ironic flub-up. Popular utility tool CCleaner (short for ‘Crap Cleaner’), which promises to clean up your system for enhanced performance, was hacked to distribute malware directly to its users, Cisco Talos reports.
The Dread Pirate Banshee sent word that it's not all been plain sailing for SpaceX, with a blooper reel showin' their various mishaps. Thar she blows!
If the booty you're chasing is a Ryzen CPU in an ITX case, LanOC have a roundup for ye: Well even months after the Ryzen launch ITX boards were basically not available, but that is all starting to change with boards getting in stock from Gigabyte, Asrock, and Biostar. Well to celebrate that I decided to bring together a collection of at least most (I’m sure someone will contact me asking for X brand) of the ITX sized coolers that currently have AM4 support. A few of the coolers I got in are pushing the limits of ITX. But today I’m going to check each of them out, make sure they fit an AM4 ITX board (and ram), and test each cooler for noise and temperatures using Ryzen CPUs from the R7, R5, and R3 platforms. Hopefully, we will get a better idea of what fits, what doesn’t, what looks amazing, what is quiet, and what will work with each level of performance.
Phoronix cast a beady eye over how EPYC compares with its Opteron ancestors. By now you have likely seen our initial AMD EPYC 7601 Linux benchmarks. If you haven't, check them out, EPYC does really deliver on being competitive with current Intel hardware in the highly threaded space. If you have been curious to see some power numbers on EPYC, here they are from the Tyan Transport SX TN70A-B8026 2U server. Making things more interesting are some comparison benchmarks showing how the AMD EPYC performance compares to AMD Opteron processors from about ten years ago.
Meanwhile, those land-lubbers at Techspot have compared Core i7 vs. Ryzen 5 with Vega 64 & GTX 1080, yarrr. By using the Core i7-7700K and Ryzen 5 1600, each with the Vega 64 and GTX 1080 at 1080p and 1440p we have some very interesting results to go over. Further, we suspect these are typical hardware combinations many are considering for building a new high-end rig when gaming is a big factor.
Man the poop deck! Another sea battle is underway at BabelTech, with the RX Vega 56 vs. GTX 1070 FE facing off in an overclocking showdown. Previously, we found that the stock-clocked $399 reference version of the RX Vega 56 is about 8-9% faster than the $399 stock-clocked reference GTX 1070 FE using 28 PC games. This time, we will test 20 PC games, and overclock the GTX 1070 FE and the RX Vega 56 each as far as they will go to see where they stand in relation to each other fully overclocked.
It be quite a day for duellin', with the ROG Zenith Extreme vs ASRock X399 Taichi on FunkyKit. It’s an epic battle between two of the most awesome X399 motherboards on the market. the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme and the ASRock X399 Taichi. We put these two motherboards to the test to find out which one is the real winner.
The Verge make the interesting point that we expect a PC to last for years, but accept a phone costing the same amount to last much less long. I usually spend about $1,300 on a new computer, and I usually expect it to stay in good shape for about four years — if not more. So if I’m spending over $1,000 on an iPhone, how long should I expect to use it for? Err, yarr?
That wily old sea-dog elvis has announced that the latest "Retro Let's Play" is Super Mario 64, from way back in 1996. Currently ranked #1 in HG101's Top 47,858 Games of All Time (scroll down to their Episode 15 podcast if you want to hear their detailed discussion), it's hard to find a gamer (or even non-gamer) who hasn't heard of Mario. First appearing as "Jumpman" in the 1981 arcade classic "Donkey Kong", Mario has served as Nintendo's major mascot for almost their entire console gaming history. Super Mario Brothers, which first appeared on the NES in 1985, is often credited as a final nail in the coffin for the video game crash that started in 1983, and resulted in the rise of home video game systems booming in popularity.
Time for me to return to the briny depths, but first, here's our ever-popular TLAPD mascot:
Yarrr!
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 19-September-2017 09:34:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ECS Z270H4-I LGA1151 Motherboard on MadShrimps.
Asus' ROG Strix Z270E Gaming motherboard on TechReport.
GIGABYTE Z270X-Gaming 8 Motherboard on PCPerspective.
ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Initial Benchmarks Of The AMD EPYC 7601 On Ubuntu Linux on Phoronix.
Audio Visual:
Reolink Argus Wireless Battery-Powered Security Camera on OCClub.
Kanto YU4 Desktop Computer Speakers on APHNetworks.
Video Cards:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 on TechARP.
ASUS ROG Poseidon GTX 1080 Ti 11G on Modders-Inc.
Misc:
SteelSeries Apex M750 keyboard on Vortez.
Kingston KC1000 960GB PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Keeping Intel Core X-Series CPUs Cool With Noctua Air Cooling on Phoronix.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 17-September-2017 09:57:38 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
ASUS TUF X299 Mark I on Guru3D.
Gigabyte Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming 8 on The Tech Report.
ASRock X399 Taichi on Funky Kit.
MSI X399 Gaming Carbon Pro AC on Hexus.
Storage:
Crucial BX300 480 GB on techPowerUp.
Buffalo TeraStation TS5410 8TB 10Gbe NAS on TweakTown.
Transcend StoreJet 25C3N 1TB Portable HDD on TweakTown.
Corsair Neutron NX500 NVMe PCIe Gen.3 x4 Add-In Card SSD on NikKTech.
Silicon Power Armor A85 1TB External Hard Drive on Hexus.
Mobile:
ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro (ZD552KL) on TechARP.
MSI GS63VR Gaming Notebook on PC Perspective.
Misc:
Reeven Naia 240 AIO Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Corsair HX1000 Platinum 2017 on ocaholic.
CHERRY B.UNLIMITED 3.0 Keyboard on Vortez.
GeIL EVO X AMD Edition DDR4 on Vortez.
AOC AGON AG271QG 144-165 Hz on techPowerUp.
AVA Direct Avant Mid-Size on LanOC Reviews,
Linksys Velop Mesh Wireless Router on APH Networks.
Thanks to Rezin and Simon this week!
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 15-September-2017 14:12:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NASA's Cassini Mission comes to an end in a few hours, crashing into Saturn after successfully orbiting it for 13 years. On its final orbit, Cassini will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour, sending back new and unique science to the very end. After losing contact with Earth, the spacecraft burns up like a meteor, becoming part of the planet itself. Here's a look back at some of its discoveries and images. Discussion in this thread.
HWInfo rounded up 17 PCI-Express SSDs for a shootout. There is a lot of renewal and progress in the area of fast storage. Time to cover all the recent developments, including a test of 17 PCI-Express SSDs. This way you have an overview of the state of affairs in this market. The last time we created an overview of the market for PCI-Express SSDs was early 2016. Right now, the situation is a lot different in comparison. This is not shocking, considering the pace at which developments are implemented in this segment. This pace will probably stay the same or even increase, as more and more manufacturers succeed in introducing competitive PCI-Express SSDs.
Bitcoin pricing is on a wild ride, thanks to concerns about Chinese Government regulation. The Wall Street Journal reports that China's central bank has put together a draft of the ban on exchanges after a months-long investigation the cryptocurrency. At the moment, details are thin and reports are only indicating that exchanges based in China, such as OKCoin and Huobi, would have to cease their operations. It remains to be seen if exchanges outside the country will be blocked by government's central firewall.
Tweaktown on the other hand are looking into ETH mining performance. Ethereum cryptocurrency mining benchmarks... a fight to the mining death between AMD and NVIDIA's best GPUs!
Meanwhile the "Colorful" brand have introduced a crypto-targeted motheroard, with eight PCIe x16 slots. This board is 485 mm in length, and 195 mm in width, and probably won't fit in even HPTX cases for its intended use, but is suited for custom rack-type setups. It only includes the most bare-essential features to set up a mining rig with up to eight graphics cards, with 2-slot spacing between each card.
Remember when graphics cards were used for games? ;) Techspot do, and have a budget eSports shootout. It's time for another GPU battle, though this one is a bit different with GPUs under $100: from AMD we have the Radeon RX 550 and on Nvidia's side is the GeForce GT 1030. Our focus will be primarily on eSports titles including CS:GO, Overwatch and Dota 2 running on a Ryzen 3 test bench.
HotHardware compared some Intel Z270 motherboards. Today we are going to take a look at three popular Intel Z270-based motherboards targeted at power users and gamers, produced by enthusiast favorites Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI. The three boards we've rounded-up here cover a wide range of price points. The Gigabyte Aorus Z270X-Gaming K5 and ASUS ROG STRIX Z270F Gaming boards represent more mainstream segments, while the MSI Z270 XPOWER Gaming Titanium targets the ultra high-end.
Thursday Night Reviews
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Thursday, 14-September-2017 23:28:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Raijintek Thetis Window Chassis on ThinkComputers.
Raijintek PAEAN on Modders-Inc.
BitFenix Nova TG on Guru3D.
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Tempered Glass on OCAholic.
Silverstone Kublai KL07 on TechPowerUp.
SilverStone Case Storage Series CS350 on Phoronix.
Cooling:
Antec H2O H1200 Pro AIO CPU cooler on OCInside.
Game Max Iceberg 240mm Liquid Cooler on KitGuru.
Power Supply:
Seasonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 550W PSU on PCPerspective.
Unitek 10-Port USB Charging Station on ThinkComputers.
Aerocool Project 7 P7 650W Platinum on KitGuru.
Corsair TX-850M 850W on Hexus.
Misc:
ASUS ROG Swift PG248Q 24” Gaming Monitor on FunkyKit.
DockCase Connectivity Dock for MacBook 15" on Tweaktown.
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 13-September-2017 13:36:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Science Fiction author and long-time tech writer Jerry Pournelle has passed away. Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle passed away earlier this week after a sudden illness at the age of 84. He helped popularize the military science fiction genre with novels such as Janissaries and The Mercenary, but is also credited with a major milestone: the first author to write a novel entirely on a computer.
Apple have unveiled the iPhone X, named for the 10-year anniversary of the original iPhone. The Home button is removed, and Tap to Wake is now a feature. You can also use Raise to Wake, then swipe up from the bottom of the display to unlock the iPhone or return to the Home screen. Swipe up and pause to enter multitasking. It's also nearly two freaking grand in Australia. There's more about the X and iPhone 8 models which were also launched recently in this article, and discussion in this thread.
Meanwhile, with the news that phones only last a year, some are wondering if we really need a new model so often. Apple and other tech firms have been criticized for "planned obsolescence": Deliberately making products with short life spans so consumers quickly find them obsolete and resort to buying the latest model. More than 337,000 people have signed a petition created by consumer group SumOfUs last summer urging Apple against this practice. Just how bad is it? How impractical would an old phone be today? The only way to find out would be to try to use one. Actually that article doesn't really go into the issue as much as I'd hoped. Oh well, I'll be over here with my Galaxy S 5, yelling at a cloud.
If you've been experiencing game stuttering since the Windows 10 Creator's Update, you're not alone - but Microsoft are working on a fix. Since April, a certain set of gamers have been complaining about frame rate stuttering and slow system performance after installing the Windows 10 Creators Update to their gaming PCs. Despite following the usual steps of reinstalling drivers, and disabling Xbox Game DVR, the issues still persisted over the past five or so months. Well, months later, a post in the Microsoft Answers forum about this very issue has gathered up tons of comments, and the company has finally come out and acknowledged the problems, saying a fix will be coming soon.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 13-September-2017 11:26:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Asus ROG Zenith Extreme X399 (Ryzen Threadripper) Motherboard on FunkyKit.
BIOSTAR A320MH Pro Gaming Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Cooling:
FSP Windale 4 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
Noctua NF-A20 and NF-A12x15 fans on Vortez.
Audio Visual:
Creative Sound Blaster Roar Classic Lite speakers on Vortez.
Edifier R1010BT Desktop Computer Speakers on APHNetworks.
Storage:
QNAP TS-453Bmini-8G NAS Server on NikKTech.
ADATA SX8000 M.2 512 GB SSD on Guru3D.
Portable & Prebuilt:
ASUS ZenFone AR Review: Google Tango And Daydream VR Take Center Stage on HotHardware.
Gigabyte's Aero 15 gaming laptop on TechReport.
Input Etc:
Drevo Calibur 71-Key Mechanical Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
HyperX Alloy FPS and FPS Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on PCPerspective.
Corsair K70 LUX RGB keyboard on OCAholic.
Misc:
Cougar Armor Gaming Chair on TechPowerUp.
Mean:IT 5PM LUM RED Case on Modders-Inc.
RX Vega 56 vs. GTX 1070 FE – 28 Game Showdown on BabelTechReviews.
P-Link Archer C5400v2 Wireless Router on Tweaktown.
Forum Projects
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Monday, 11-September-2017 18:53:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Catching up on a few reviews and projects from the forums:
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 11-September-2017 13:14:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Australian researchers are working on a new type of quantum computer. This might just be the final piece of puzzle in the realm of silicon-based quantum computers. “Although we only have its blueprint, the development of this device is as crucial as the 1998 seminal paper by Bruce Kane on silicon quantum computing ” stated Andrea Morello, the research team leader. “Similar to Kane’s paper, our project is a proposal and the qubit is yet to be built.” Morello explains. “Our experimental data suggests that the project is possible and hopefully we shall demonstrate this later. But I think this research is as visionary as Kane’s original paper.” Their paper is here on Nature.
On the other hand, one academic has labelled Australia's NBN a national tragedy. Professor Tucker concludes: “This situation is nothing short of a national tragedy and a classic example of failed infrastructure policy that will have long-term ramifications for Australia’s digital economy.” The news comes after reports that Australia has slower internet speeds than Kenya or Latvia – and is continuing to sink dramatically down the world rankings. The academic paper can be read here, thanks Tony_L.
HardOCP compared Threadripper waterblocks. We have reached out to every company that has sent us a press release on its new Threadripper waterblock, and asked for a sample. Some have never responded back, some have refused samples for not giving them free advertising, and others have stepped right up to have their products reviewed. And lastly we have simply purchased some Threadripper waterblocks as well.
Google upset a lot of people by announcing that Google Drive is going away, but apparently that's not quite the case. First and foremost, the Google cloud service known as Drive is going to be just fine, for now. If you log in to your Google account and utilise Drive's storage through a web browser, you probably won't notice any changes. But the Google Drive app for PC and Mac is officially being deprecated and the company's developers announced in a blog post that it will no longer be supported starting December 11. Instead, you'll need to choose from one of two new apps.
PC Perspective checked out NVIDIA WhisperMode. Attempting to address the problem of loud gaming notebooks, NVIDIA released a technology called WhisperMode. WhisperMode launched alongside NVIDIA's Max-Q design notebooks earlier this year, but it will work with any notebook enabled with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 or higher. This software solution aims to limit noise and power consumption of notebooks by restricting the frame rate of your game to a reasonable compromise of performance, noise, and power levels.
Concerns about Kaspersky continue, with Best Buy removing their products from shelves. Kaspersky Lab, which boasts it has more than 400 million users, has strongly denied any links to the Russian government. But some federal lawmakers are pressing for legislation that would ban the U.S. government from using Kaspersky's software. They are on heightened alert about Russian hackers, some suspected of being backed by its government, in the wake of their interference in the U.S. presidential election. I generally advise people just to use the in-built Microsoft antivirus nowadays, seems to do the job.
Wikimedia have a competition involving taking photos of Australian Monuments. Australia is participating in Wiki Loves Monuments for the first time in 2017. Photographs of any registered heritage places are eligible for consideration in the judging. The competition will be open for entries from 00:00(AEST) 1 September 2017 until 23:59(AWST) 30 September 2017.
LegitReviews played around with ETH mining on Radeon RX Vega 64. Over the weekend we started seeing stories that AMD Radeon Vega 64 air cooled models could get 43.5 MH/s at just 130 Watts of power when mining Ethereum using Claymore’s miner. His numbers got us interested in seeing what was going on though, so we grabbed our well known Kill A Watt P3 P4400 series power meters that we've used for over 15 years and our Vega graphics cards to see what all the hubbub is about. We'll also be trying out the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled edition for the very first time for this article.
Meanwhile, in response to my earlier question about Bitcoin ATMs in Australia, a few people sent in this link which shows where 16 of them are. Thanks!
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 11-September-2017 06:50:32 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Intel Core i7-7820X 8-Core Processor on ThinkComputers.
ASRock Z270 Taichi on TweakTown.
MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC on TweakTown.
Input etc:
GAMDIAS HERMES P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Madshrimps.
HyperX Alloy Elite Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks.
Bloody B820R Light Strike Keyboard on techPowerUp.
HyperX Alloy Elite on Vortez.
Audio:
Lioncast LX50 Headset on OC Inside.
Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pro Gaming Sound Card on Hardware Asylum.
Creative MUVO 2C on Vortez.
Mobile:
Huawei Mate 9 on Hot Hardware.
Motorola Moto Z2 Play on Techspot.
ASUS VivoBook S15 (S510U) Laptop on TechARP.
Misc:
G.SKILL Trident Z RGB on Vortez.
Enermax Revolution SFX 650W PSU on Funky Kit.
MIFCOM Savage 1080 Ti system on ocaholic.
Fractal Design Meshify C Case on Guru3D.
Radeon RX Vega 64 vs GeForce GTX 1080 FCAT Analysis on Guru3d
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