Graphics, graphics, graphics! If it wasn't for the humble graphics card and the pursuit of improved gaming visuals, we probably would be playing board games. Instead, since the concept and initial applications of a graphical interface and "moving pictures" in electronic games began, the consumers demanded more, and in general the engineers in the respective hardware and software companies have tried to deliver. Fast forward to 2019 and finally in consumer game titles and graphics hardware, here is a mainstream attempt at Ray Tracing, a long standing visual effects promise that's just about to come true.
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Tag: review
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MetallicGear is a sub-brand of Phanteks so you may have heard of them, but you'll most likely know Phanteks. Sub-brands are popular for a number of reasons, including expanding a market share, breaking out of a stereotype, research and development, or possibly an acquisition. Phanteks are an award-winning company so they will know a thing or two about design and what a good chassis looks like.
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Award-winning PC enthusiasts mainstay Creative, a company that could always grab attention just with their name, has been around for a very long time. Anyone who knows them will know them as Creative Labs, and also acknowledge how they changed hum-drum Personal Computers into a PC with amazing sound capabilities in the mid-'90s. Creative Labs, or Creative as they are now known, have been around for longer than most current PC brands, with humble beginnings in the early eighties, when the likes of Apple, Atari and Intel were becoming household names.
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We have had the Crucial MX500 250GB for a few months now and so it's about time we got round to reviewing it. Crucial sent this over to us a while ago and ever since we have been running the MX500 250GB SSD for a long period of time, allowing us to understand its day to day performance, and by the performance, we don't just mean test results. We have used it as an external drive, a spare drive, and OS drive and it's currently installed in a doc as a MacOS Time Machine back up drive.
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We reviewed the Scythe Ninja 4 a couple of years ago and recommended it. Not hard really, Skythe are an old-school PC cooling and accessory company who have been around since the start of the modern enthusiast's system building era. Scythe sent the Scythe Ninja 5 CPU Cooler to review and we are more than happy to oblige.
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The Noctua NF-A12x25 fan has been one of the most anticipated products to come from Noctua in recent times. We, like many of you were really eager to get our hands on the new design of fans and put them to good use. To Noctua's credit, they sent some over, along with some NF-P12 Redux fans (review publishing shortly). We have had these for a while now and decided a slightly different route for this review.
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It's the end of an era..... or is it? Well, yes it is, the dawn of the new Nvidia RTX GPU bringing ray tracing to the masses, it has to be seen as a milestone in the computing and GPU world. Just like the features we take for granted, such as transform and light technology, the RTX technology signifies the start of a new generation of features and we should be excited.
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Intel's Coffee Lake was released not even a year ago and it already feels like the standard enthusiasts Intel motherboard, unless you stuck to your Z270 you only just bought! With no backwards compatibility with Skylake or Kaby Lake CPUs, Intel forced you to upgrade to the Z370 if you wanted a piece of the new 8700K for example. You can count on PC enthusiasts to flame about this, and also find a way to actually make the new CPU's work on Z270 motherboards, it's all been a bit cynical.
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The ASRock Z270 Pro4 motherboard is a familiar site. ASRock is a familiar brand and since the birth of the ASRock company, it has secured a healthy and immediately identifiable place in the component market. With the recent launch of mainstream graphics cards, it's also clear that ASRock is looking for more. The Intel Z270 is getting on a bit now, and though it wasn't apparent at the time of launch, it has become a small part of Intel's chipset masterplan, with the release of the 3xx and other chipset models.
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Noctua Chromax is probably one of the most awaited products from the premium cooler manufacturer. We've said in most of our Noctua reviews, the branding and colour scheme is a marmite issue, love it or hate it, you are basically stuck with it. Last year, Noctua released the Chromax range. A range of products aimed at anyone who loves Noctua, but hates the branding. Or even, maybe for those who love the branding, but want something a little more contemporary.
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Here at Hardwaresalve, we have reviewed most of Noctua’s Intel CPU coolers from the recent generation of products. We had received a shipment of Noctua’s Chromax CPU cooler customer shrouds, fans and coloured accessories and took the opportunity to pick up an NH-U12S to test on its own and with the Chromax range. The Chromax review is coming shortly, we have a couple of Noctua CPU coolers that we used with the Chromax range, and provides a unique opportunity for Noctua owners, more on that soon.
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Last year, Hardwareslave went out to test the cheapest M.2 SSD 240Gb drive there was, no matter who made it, or what it was. We stumbled on the DREVO D1 M.2 2280 240GB Internal SSD, at the time it was the cheapest we could find in M.2 Form Factor. We purchased it for £64.99, a bargain we thought, but our tests would show if it was a bad purchase or not.
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Cryorig has a CPU cooler for all the different Form Factor and TDP requirements out there on the mainstream CPU market today. They need to be considered mainstream themselves too, with big impressions in a short lifespan, and they’re still living up to promises and commitments. It’s fair to say we like them and would recommend any system builder looks at their lineup before making a decision on a CPU Cooler.
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For our first CPU Cooler review this year we have another Noctua product. We are going to have a look at the Noctua NH-L12S, the successor to the award-winning NH-L12. The NH-L12S is a low profile cooler with a 120mm fan, up from the 92mm fan on the NH-L12, four heat pipes with Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), and soldered joints & nickel plating. It's aimed at the HTPC and Small Form Factor market, or even a Home Server if you need decent and quiet cooling.
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We’ve reviewed most of Crucial's SSD product line over the years and it’s given us some good insight into their market placement and development. We have recently reviewed the MX300 1Tb SSD, effectively the third generation of their MX series, and it gave a good score and representation of Crucial. Now we are on to the third generation of the BX series, the BX300, which was released recently.
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