The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H based on the Meteor Lake architecture does come with quite a unique core architecture, with 4 Redwood P-Cores, 8 Crestmont E-Cores and 2 LP E-Cores for a total of 18 total threads (P-Cores feature HT), does integrate a dedicated NPU for supporting the latest AI platforms, while the GPU is based on Intel Arc Graphics with 7 Xe cores supporting the latest technologies including Ray Tracing. As we have noted from the test results the ECS LIVA 7 Plus is topping our charts in terms of performance and one of the main reasons would be the lack of aggressive power capping other models do employ to accommodate less elaborated cooling systems. read more

Thanks to the large storage capacity, the Ace A55 can be successfully used as a secondary storage drive where transfer rates are not crucial. The drive is equipped with a healthy amount of pseudoSLC cache, so we needed to fill over 1TB of data for noticing drops in write speeds, while the TBW rating is set at 2000 for the 4TB SKU. read more

We have tested ARA in games such as The Crew Motorfest, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, Dustborn but also Diablo 4; the EQ this product does use results in clear highs, balanced mids, while the bass is not overpowering the whole experience. The offered volume is impressively loud, meaning we never felt the need to use it over 50%, while the overall low weight of about 311g is ideal not to notice you are wearing the headset after longer gaming sessions. ARA is constructed from good quality plastic so it won’t creak during adjustment process. read more

After working a bit with the Synapse settings, we fired up Still Wakes the Deep, Alien Isolation and The Medium: the 40mm Titanium Triforce drivers are able to deliver a great atmospheric experience, with punchy bass, clear voices, while THX audio really makes you think you are using a much more expensive multiple-speaker setup around you. We did really enjoy the breathable fabric earpads which, in our experience are more durable in time versus leatherette ones, but also the retractable microphone, a function we learned to enjoy with SteelSeries headsets as well! read more

The Canvio Flex 4TB drive from Toshiba does perform as expected for a 4TB 2.5’’ drive, MQ04UBB400 relying less on caching versus the drives found with Silicon Power external drives, which usually use Western Digital internals. Unlike models from WD, the internal board of the drive does offer a Micro-B 3.0 connector directly and not SATA, so no daughterboards are required here and the overall length of the total assembly is shorter. read more