The database of other reviews. Think cooling, cases, you name it. Looking for something specific? Hit up the search, tags, or just explore through. If it’s been reviewed recently, you’ll find it here.
We’ve had a number of hardware reviews roll in over the past few days. Let’s take a look at what we have for reading this morning.
Power Supplies: Cooler Master 850w SFX @ Modders Inc
Audio: Creative Pebble V3 2.0 USB-C Speakers @ [M]adShrimps, Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 @ NikKTech, Schiit Hel Gaming DAC/Amp @ TweakTown
NAS/DAS: TerraMaster TD2 Thunderbolt 3 Plus RAID DAS @ NikKTech
Cooling: Corsair iCUE Nexus @ ThinkComputers
December 8th, 2020, Taipei, Taiwan – BIOSTAR, a leading brand of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, announces BIOS updates for their AM4 400/500 series motherboards to support the AMD Smart Access Memory technology.
AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM) allows the CPU to get full access to the GPU memory, users will gain up to 11% in gaming performance. BIOSTAR consumers can now enjoy an extra performance boost with their 400/500 series motherboards pairing AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors and Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.
How to Enable:
Step 1. Enter BIOS
Step 2. Go to “Advanced”
Step 3. Select “PCI Subsystem Settings”
Step 4. Enable “Above 4G Decoding” and “Re-size BAR Support”
Step 5. Press “F10”to save settings and reboot
For more information related to the BIOSTAR AM4 400/500 series motherboards to support the AMD Smart Access Memory technology go to the download page of your motherboard’s product page and download the corresponding BIOS version from BIOSTAR.
The ZEUS line of DDR4 RAM modules by Team Group includes single and dual 8/16/32GB kits at 2666/3000/3200MHz frequencies, timings as low as CL16 (3000/3200MHz CL16, 2666 CL19 and 3200MHz CL20) and voltages set at both 1.2V (2666/3200MHz) and 1.35V (3000/3200MHz). According to Thaiphoon burner the 3200MHz 1.2V 16GB kit which i have here with me is based on single C-die 8GB modules by SK-Hynix and is XMP certified with timings set at 20-22-22-46-68.
Read more @ NikKTech
G.Skill is a company that needs no introduction, as it is more than likely that at some point in your computing that you have owned at least one set of their memory. Whether it be the various kits of Trident, Trident Z, Ripjaws with different Roman numerals after them, Flares, Snipers, Aegis, Ares, Pi, well, you get the point. If you are looking for RAM, G.Skill has enough options to sell you to fit the need. Even before we ventured into this review gig, we were well accustomed to what G.Skill offered and have bought many a set for multiple systems.
Read more @ TweakTown
This NVMe model in M.2 2280 is using the PCI Express 3.0 standard. Leveraging NVMe, the drive has maximum quoted speeds of 2,100/1,700MB/s and random 4K throughput of 220K IOPS. These are not brilliant numbers anno 2020; then again, if it’s a multitude faster than a SATA3 SSD or faster, who am I to complain, really. The TBW values we learned ar listed at like so for the models 512GB / >400TB 1TB / >600TB 2TB / >1,000TB, which is a lot as you could completely write the SSD 600x before NAND would get exhausted.
Read more @ Guru3D
It seems many people are building brand new PCs this time of year and when it comes to storage we’ve seen a shift from people moving from traditional hard drives and even SATA-based solid state drives to M.2 NVMe storage. With prices pretty low and many motherboards offering at least two M.2 slots it makes sense to go the M.2 route. Today we will be taking a look at two M.2 NVMe solid state drives from ADATA. The first is the Falcon, which offers sequential read and write speeds of 3100 MB/s and 1500 MB/s respectively. Then we have the Swordfish, which is a bit slower with sequential speeds of 1800 MB/s read and 1200 MB/s write.
Read more @ ThinkComputers
WD Black AN1500 2TB
WD Black has been the enthusiast and gaming brand for WD for the last decade. More recently, WD has lit a fire under the brand, releasing new products to the portfolio, namely the SN850, which out of nowhere, no hype involved, became the best drive you can buy without question.
Another part of that portfolio release was the AN1500 alongside the D50 Game Dock. The AN1500 is your traditional AIC (Add-in Card) sporting a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface offering increased throughput up to 6500 MB/s read and 4100 MB/s write with several capacity options including both 1TB and 2TB, along with a 4TB part at the high-end.
Read more @ TweakTown
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB
Naturally, enthusiasts are all over this drive, but Sabrent’s latest and greatest deserves a close look from prosumers and professionals as well. If you are processing write-intensive data by the terabytes, then the Rocket 4 Plus is the drive for you. It offers unparalleled write performance, class-leading endurance, and will be available in capacities of up to 4TB.
Speaking of capacity, we have for your viewing pleasure the capacity point that we consider the current sweet spot for enthusiasts/gamers – 2TB. We will have a 1TB Rocket Plus review coming soon. Also, this review marks the debut of our next Gen SSD test system based on AMD’s 5900X CPU and our Gen4 only chart.
Read more @ TweakTown
Storage:
Corsair MP400 4TB (QLC) NVMe M2 SSD @ Guru3D
WD Black SN850 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD @ TweakTown
Samsung 870 QVO SSD @ ThinkComputers
Cases:
ASUS ROG Z11 mini ITX @ Guru3D
Lian Li O11 Dynamic Min @ Guru3D
Another thing to touch on with the 5800X is its placement in the market. AMD pushes it as a competitor to the Intel 10700K based on core count. When in reality, we must also look at its cost. At the time of writing, 5800X costs $449, and the 10700K costs $399. Intel more recently pushed 10850K to market to cover the transition to 10900K, with a price of $449. This pits the 10850K as a direct market competitor to the 5800X for users choosing a platform.
Read more @ TweakTown
Storage
Team Group EX2 Elite @ ThinkComputers
Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 500GB M.2 SSD @ TweakTown
WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD @ TweakTown
Silicon Power UD70 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD @ NikKTech
Team T-Force Vulcan G 1TB SATA SSD @ TweakTown
Memory
Patriot Memory Viper Steel Series DDR4 32GB 3200MHz Memory Kit @ [M]adShrimps
Cooling
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML280 @ ThinkComputers