Tag Archives: Review

The Asus RT-AC5300 is a unique wireless router. Its slightly odd looking design is due to its eight antennas, providing three separate wireless networks – two of which are quad-stream 4×4 802.11ac. It’s of most benefit to environments with an extreme amount of wireless traffic, and for people who want …

Hitting the mid-high end market hard is the Supermicro C7Z170-SQ. Taking inspiration from the past and adding modern components is sure to rock the competition with server grade components, high-speed M.2 and USB-C 3.1 included.  Perched precariously at £210, the Supermicro C7Z170-SQ looks to be the motherboard that has been …

On paper the new Corsair Void 7.1 surround sound headset looks good. It comprises a unified 3.5mm connector, a 7.1 surround USB adapter and high-quality neodymium drivers – all backed up by the fantastic Corsair Utility software. They have even built in memory foam in the headband and earcup padding. …

Recently we got the chance to take a look at the Razer Black Widow Ultimate 2016 edition, which is a fantastic keyboard but was missing some additional colour. That is where Razer's Black Widow Tournament Edition Chroma steps in, offering some of the best RGB lighting around as well as …

You can look at the MSI Gaming 24 6QE All-in-One in a number of different ways and the most obvious (and laziest) is to compare it with Apple iMac. This misses the point because iMac comes in 21.5-inch and 27-inch sizes and places the emphasis on a svelte design where …

It seems like the AM3+ platform has been around forever, yet competitive value options on the CPU side mean that motherboard vendors are still battling for a slice of the pie with 970 and 990FX offerings. How do you make a chipset approaching its 5th birthday valid in 2016? Gigabyte …

Chillblast has launched a budget PC called Fusion Drone which, despite the name, does not have the ability to fly. On the other hand it is very cheap and this fully configured Windows 10 PC costs a mere £499 inc VAT. For that sort of price you may expect a …

The Acer Predator Z35 is a 35-inch curved ultra-widescreen G-Sync display with a VA panel, aimed at gamers looking for ultimate performance. Its standard refresh rate is a tasty 144Hz, but this can be raised all the way to 200Hz, in what is one of the highest refresh rates in …

The Razer Diamondback is one of the most iconic gaming mice Razer ever made, so it is with some fanfare that we can announce its return. Much like the original, this is a slimline, ambidextrous rodent, though it has updated ergonomics, styling and internal hardware – thanks to its more contemporary …

The Dell UltraSharp UP2715K is the company’s flagship colour-accurate 27-inch IPS display with a number of unique features. Top of the list is an enormous 5K resolution, giving greater pixel density than even 4K screens. There’s also higher colour accuracy than many standard displays, with quoted 99 per cent Adobe …

With USB 3.1 and Type-C starting to become a bit more common, it is about time we start to see devices really take advantage of it. Today, we are taking a look at the SanDisk Extreme 900, a 480GB portable SSD using the USB Type-C connector, can this drive really …

While a smart home was once thought the preserve of the uber rich today with wireless apps and plug-in security systems, anyone can have a connected household. All you need is something like the Smanos X300 Plug and Play Alarm system, which bundles a motion sensor, door sensor and a …

Phanteks has introduced its new Eclipse P400 with a price that starts just above £50. In the world of enthusiast cases that is amazingly cheap. The basic Eclipse P400 is available in black or grey at £52, or you can pay a £3 premium for this white version. Add another …

Cyberpower has taken an interesting approach with its Infinity Luxe 805 GT gaming PC. On the one hand they have pushed the specification of the hardware with an overclocked 4.7GHz Core i7-6700K and GTX 980Ti graphics card while on the other they have also emphasised the look of the PC …

Vibox has created a gaming PC called Rapture-Chaos MX2 that uses a long list of high end components. The result is an overclocked powerhouse that storms through games at 1080p, with the added bonus that it looks superb. Watch our video and you will see that Rapture-Chaos MX2 lives up …

The Razer Black Widow has become very popular over the years, often being touted as one of the finest gaming keyboards around. Today, we are looking at the brand new 2016 edition, using Razer's own high specification mechanical switches – could this be the best option for gamers in 2016? …

Back at launch in July 2015 we reviewed the OCZ Trion 100 SSD's. These were the first OCZ drives to feature a Toshiba controller and A19 TLC NAND flash. Today we look at the latest iteration of the Trion series, dubbed the ‘Trion 150'. The Trion 150 feature 15nm Toshiba …

MSI has given its ten litre small form factor Nightblade MI a serious upgrade, although you are unlikely to spot the changes as the chassis remains very similar on the outside. If you know what you are looking for you will see that one of the ports below the power …

Only the highest of memory speeds are worthy of G.Skill's Trident series branding, so it should come as little surprise to see that the starting point for the vendor's Trident Z DDR4 sets is a lofty 2800MHz. Today we are taking a look at a dual-channel 16GB Trident Z kit …

PC Specialist has configured a mid-range Skylake laptop called Octane II that packs enough punch for gaming. You get a choice of GeForce GTX 970M or 980M graphics as well as support for as many as four storage drives and SSDs. Our sample arrived with a Core i5-6600 CPU, 16GB …

AMD released their R9 Fury back in July 2015, and our review at the time was fairly positive with concerns mainly leveled over the pricing. Today we look at the Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury 4GB – a new triple fan custom solution featuring enhanced out of the box clock speeds. …

DDR4 memory has made its way to the mainstream with the introduction of Skylake and the Z170 platform, however many buyers were not happy with the operating latencies of some DDR4 kits. Raw memory speeds for DDR4 kits are typically higher than those of DDR3 predecessors, however the timings can …

Back in December, Cooler Master announced the CM Storm Sentinel III, its latest gaming mouse bringing new features including an improved tracking sensor, a customizable OLED display and new RGB lighting. Today, we are finally going to put it through its paces and see just how well it performs.  The …

Aorus, the high-end brand created by Gigabyte, has put a lot of work into the X7 Pro-Sync and the result is an exceptionally slender laptop that packs a severe gaming punch. The chassis only measures 22.9mm thick at the widest point behind the lid hinge, near the exhaust vents. Measure …

Motherboards aimed at professional usage have quite different requirements to those aimed at consumer activities like gaming. For a start, whilst gamers are swiftly moving onto the Z170 chipset and Intel Skylake procesors, because quad-core is usually enough, workstations have generally stuck with X99 and Haswell E processors, due to …

Kingston has earned a reputation with its HyperX brand over the last few years. Today, we are taking a look at the HyperX Savage 128GB USB drive, which supports first-generation USB 3.1 technology and promises ‘blazing fast' read and write speeds. How does it hold up? Let's find out! Kingston …

The iKlips from Adam Elements may look like a lowly USB flash drive, but its main purpose it as removable storage for iOS devices. On one end is a USB 3 connector, while at the other, a Lighting connector that plugs into an iPhone and iPad, supplementing any internal storage …

It’s no surprise that ultra-wide curved screens such as the 34-inch Philips Brilliance BDM3490UC are becoming popular as they present a compelling alternative to traditional 16:9 displays. The extra width and subtle curvature gives a cinema-like experience in movies, and for desktop use, the extra pixels means more documents open …

Right now, the mini-ITX scene is extremely popular for gamers and enthusiasts. A combined effort by component manufacturers has seen greater emphasis being put on innovative mini-ITX cases, short graphics cards, and more confined cooling solutions. And let's not forget the system builders deploying small form-factor (SFF) offerings such as …

Acer’s XB270HU is a 27-inch G-Sync display with a bright IPS panel. It supports a native WQHD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 and a refresh rate of 144Hz, with Nvidia’s ULMB technology to boot, rounding off an impressive specification that puts it directly in competition with high-end adaptive-sync gaming displays …