The Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi aims to give users more than they'd expect from a Mini-ITX motherboard. Rather than trying to cram everything onto a two dimensional PCB, Asus has gone into the third dimension. It's shifted several features onto riser cards, and there's an additional USB connected audio device that also functions as something of an external dock. The Strix X670E-I WiFi is an impressive engineering showcase that goes a long way to eliminating the compromises inherent to Mini-ITX motherboards, though the ability to install many M.2 drives is a still a step too far.

At $399 / £409 / AU$639, it's an expensive piece of kit to be sure, but it's still competitive against upper mid-range ATX options and well below the price of flagship boards. It's a board for those that want the ultimate AMD Mini-ITX system. And, it's already got a BIOS with support for next-gen Ryzen 9000-series processors.

The clunkily named Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi features a 10+2+1 phase VRM with 110a per stage. It's easily able to handle the demands of a Ryzen 9 7950X processor, and surely the high-end SKUs to launch in the future. The heatsink isn't what you'd call gigantic, but there is a small embedded fan there in case things get a bit toasty. It supports up to DDR5-8000 memory, but who knows what it might be capable of when next-gen processors make their debut.

The board features both a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and primary M.2 slot. There's a second slot that supports a Gen 4 drive. These are stacked together. This section of the board is mightily impressive. It incorporates a detachable daughter board for the second slot, and there are layers of heatsinks dedicated to cooling the chipset at the bottom of the stack, and the two drives that sit atop it. There's another small fan that cools the whole assembly, but this can be set to only spin up when it all gets a bit hot under the collar. Note that a Gen5 SSD will inevitably end up reaching higher temperatures than you'd see compared to an isolated drive on an ATX board. Decent case airflow is still a must, which can be tough to achieve in a small form factor build.

The two M.2 drives are joined by two SATA ports. That's about the only weakness of the board. File hoarders will not be satisfied with support for just four drives, though with USB4 on board, you could always add speedy external drives.

The two SATA ports are contained on a daughter board that Asus calls the FPS-II card. It connects to the board via a pair of USB Type-C connectors and it contains the aforementioned SATA ports, the case headers, USB 2.0 headers, an overclocking mode switch and clear CMOS button. It's a relatively simple but clever way to claw back some of that limited Mini-ITX PCB space.

Even more impressive is an external USB connected device called the ROG Hive. It's an external sound card that's based around a Realtek ALC4050 codec, but also includes an ESS Sabre 9260Q DAC.  This is a key example of thinking literally outside the box, as such components and their associated circuitry would not be possible to jam into the limited space on a Mini-ITX PCB.

The Hive offers a lot more though. It features a Precision Boost Overdrive button, programmable flex button, and another 10Gbps Type-C port plus another Type-A port that allows BIOS flashbacks. It's an impressive and notably well-built little device.

The rear I/O puts nearly every other Mini-ITX board to shame. The highlight is a pair of USB4 ports, both of which can drive Type-C monitors. These are joined by five Type-A 10Gbps ports and three USB 2.0 ports. Ten ports on the rear of a Mini-ITX board is a rare thing, and with the various headers, plus the ports on the ROG Hive, it really is loaded on the USB front.

There's a HDMI port, and you get Intel WiFi 6E and 2.5G LAN. It would be nice to get 5G LAN and/or WiFi 7, but this is an X670 board. WiFi 7 wasn't available when it launched and 5G LAN was considered a flagship tier feature. You'll have to wait for X870 boards if you want faster networking.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

Gone are the early days of niggles and flaky DDR5 memory support on the AM5 platform. The ROG Strix X670E WiFi has received well over a dozen BIOS updates and during my testing displayed none of the issues that I encountered during the first wave of X670 launches. X670 and Socket AM5 can be considered a generally mature platform.

The board's performance was consistent, and it was happy with my Samsung based G.Skill DDR5-6000 test kit, which was not always the case on some other boards I tested with pre-Ryzen 7000-series launch BIOS.

I came away seriously impressed by the Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi. It somehow manages to cram a high-end feature set into a Mini-ITX form factor with few compromises. I love the inclusion of dual USB 4 ports in particular, and the ability to run a PCIe 5.0 SSD and a next-gen PCIe 5.0 GPU is welcome too.

The ROG Hive is also a highlight. It's a great idea to shift space-hogging audio circuitry away from the PCB and into an external device. But rather than just designate it as an external sound card, Asus went well beyond this and included some useful features with even more USB ports, and even an AMD PBO button.

And speaking of USB ports, Asus gives you another eight ports on top of the USB4 ports on the rear panel. The Hive adds more, and with the case USB headers, The X670E-I offers a really comprehensive set of USB ports for all manner of devices and peripherals.

The only glaring weakness of the board is its storage complement. Asus could have included a third M.2 slot on the rear of the board, or made the FPS-II card a little bigger with an extra two SATA ports. The latter might have been too much of an ask from its USB-C connection though. 

At $399 / £409 / AU$639, the Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi is an expensive proposition, but not overly so given what it manages to cram into its diminutive size. There are plenty of ATX boards around that price. Given its unique characteristics, and the inclusion of the ROG Hive and the daughter boards, there would have been a lot of R&D effort involved, so it's understandable for Asus to charge a premium based on that alone.

With AMD stating it intends to support AM5 for years to come, it's a good investment too. After BIOS updates, you'll be able to pop in a high core count Ryzen 9 9950X, future X3D models, and surely Zen 6 CPUs as well. 

The Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi stands out as a premium Mini-ITX motherboard for users looking to build a high-end AMD system. We have no problem recommending this little ROG board. It's in a class of its own.

That's because, for the most part, they're pretty much the same gaming mouse, albeit with one important difference. All DeathAdders have a distinct curve to their shell and are for right-handed people only, whereas Vipers are symmetrical and, in theory, are suitable for left-handers.

There's a good reason why I'm mentioning the Viper V3 Pro but I'll come to that in due course. For now, let's consider what's on offer with the new DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed. A scan of the specifications would lead anyone to think that this is just a cheaper, more basic version of the DeathAdder V3 Pro, the best wireless gaming mouse round. And they'd be right.

But they'd also be slightly wrong because, in my humble opinion, the V3 HyperSpeed is better than the V3 Pro. Yeah, sorry to just throw that out so early in the review, but it's important that I set the table first and then fill it with tasty morsels.

Let's start with the optical sensor, the device that scans the surface the mouse rests on and tracks its motion. Where the Focus Pro 30K in the V3 Pro boast a maximum DPI of 30,000 and a maximum speed and acceleration of 750 IPS and 70 g, the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed offers figures of 26,000 and 500/40 respectively. Yes, they're lower but unless you're a professional e-sports person, you're honestly not going to tell.

It's the same with the 2.4 GHz wireless system. Razer's HyperSpeed connection is very low latency and glitch-free and the version that comes with the V3 Pro allows the polling rate to be set to 8,000 Hz. That's extremely fast but also rather unnecessary, as it significantly eats into the mouse's battery life and lots of older games will spit out the dummy when using it.

The V3 HyperSpeed is a mere 1,000 Hz like most wireless gaming mice, but just like the optical sensor, that's honestly fine. It wasn't that long ago when PC gamers would eschew wireless and USB-wired mice in favour of those using the PS2 socket, because of the low polling rate, but that's no longer the case.

With this rate, the operating system checks for a mouse input every millisecond and unless you have the physical reactions of a cat, any input lag in a game will be down to some other issue in your PC and certainly not this mouse.

You can see all of this in the above charts collated by using Mouse Tester. I've included some 1,000 and 8,000 Hz results for the Viper V3 Pro to highlight just how small the difference between the two really is. The position and velocity tracking is accurate, smooth and consistent, and the small hiccups in the update times are more indicative of the PC used, not the mouse.

As already mentioned, using polling rates higher than 1,000 Hz on a wireless mouse greatly increases the device's power consumption. By using the standard rate and a less potent sensor, Razer's been able to fit a lighter battery inside the V3 Hyperspeed, compared to the DeathAdder V3 Pro, and it lasts a little longer, too.

One could argue that having hardware with greater capability is always going to be the better choice but that's only true if there's not much price difference. As it so happens, Razer has launched the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed at $99.99/£99.99/€119.99/AU$179.95—that's a full $60 cheaper than the V3 Pro, a 40% reduction. The V3 HyperSpeed certainly isn't a 40% less capable gaming mouse, that's for sure.

However, this is a review, so it's time to be more critical and I'll begin with the subjective aspects. I really liked how the V3 HyperSpeed felt in my hand and the side buttons were perfectly placed just above where my thumb naturally rested. I also liked its ridiculously low 55 g weight, which quite surprised me as I typically prefer a meatier mouse—I suspect the shape of the shell had something to do with this, though, as it was easier to grip and move about than the Viper V3 Pro.

I didn't like how loud the primary mouse buttons were. The substantial clicks and clacks weren't noticeable when gaming with a headset but with speakers or just normal usage, it began to grate on my nerves after a while. Likewise, the mouse wheel—sturdy, chunky even, and with its positive-feeling rotation, switching weapons in games was a delight. However, scrolling through a webpage or large document was somewhat tedious.

Now for the objective criticism. The plastic used for the upper body of the V3 HyperSpeed is coated with a material to give a smooth touch. I can certainly vouch for how smooth it feels but whatever that material is, it attracts grease and grime like a magnet. If you have sweaty hands, it'll look oily and grubby in no time.

Razer claims that the mouse has eight programmable buttons but really it's just a standard five in number. One could argue this is a matter of semantics but three of those 'buttons' happen to be the forward/backward motion of the wheel and the DPI cycling/power switch in the base.

It's great that Razer has made all of the controls fully programmable, via its Synapse software, but I'd argue that the base button isn't one that's ever likely to be set to an important macro or the like.

Lastly, there's the HyperSpeed wireless connection system. Razer has furnished the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed with a high-quality braided USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, a Type-C to Type-A adapter block, and a 2.4 GHz wireless dongle. It all works very nicely and the mouse also supports Razer's 8,000 Hz HyperPolling dongle, which is a $30 separate purchase. None of the above is the issue, though.

When I grabbed the HyperPolling dongle included with the Viper V3 Pro, I was a little surprised to find it didn't work with the V3 HyperSpeed. It would seem that the Viper's 8,000 Hz wireless system isn't the same as the separately purchasable HyperPolling dongle or, at the very least, it's been configured to only work with the Viper. That's a wholly unnecessary and confusing product fragmentation.

It's not a fault of the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed, of course, but the HyperSpeed dongle supports multi-device connects and appears to be fully universal, whereas HyperPolling isn't. I also can't help but feel that many consumers are going to get more than a little confused between Razer's HyperSpeed and HyperPolling nomenclature.

All of the negative aspects of the new DeathAdder model are quite minor in the grand scheme of things and none of them put me off using the mouse regularly. As a diehard vertical ergonomic mouse user, I was surprised by how often I reached for the V3 HyperSpeed during work and it's been the go-to mouse for my household's nightly gaming sessions.

Razer has done a fantastic job of taking its best gaming mouse and making it a lot more affordable, without sacrificing what the DeathAdder brand means to the gaming community. Its understated looks hide a seriously capable mouse and the lack of super-fast polling rates and laser-accurate sensors arguably makes it a better mouse for the vast majority of PC gamers out there.

Yes, TP-Link's latest and greatest Wi-Fi 7 router, the Archer GE800, is what you might call a distinctive shape, and if you put it on display with some model TIE Interceptors and a CR-90 corvette or two it might blend in, or at least have people wondering which part of the expanded universe it comes from.

This is no simple shuttlecraft, however, but a fully armed and operational... [that's enough -ed] battle... er... Wi-Fi 7 router with five fast Ethernet ports for smuggling data away from Imperial probe droids and capable of downloading the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs [you're fired -ed]. Look, the antennas are merged into two panels that stick up like the Netgear Nighthawks of old, OK? And they look like wings.

The box is huge, and emblazoned with 'dominate the competition'—a slogan most probably aimed at gamers unless there's some kind of competitive networking event we're unaware of. And while a Wi-Fi World Cup might be fun, we suspect a certain amount of performance-enhancing plugs might be involved. 

Your first challenge is to get it out of the plastic wrapping, which clings tightly to the angles and flat plates of the router. It's fully assembled, with no antennas to screw in, but you'll be forced to put it down on a desk before committing it to the cupboard or shelf just to take in the sheer majestic size of the thing. Footprint-wise, it's the size of a small laptop, but a laptop that rises six inches into the air. Between the wings there's even an active cooling fan—it really is like a laptop.

An Ethernet cable and a phone SIM tool—for poking the recessed reset button—are included, plus a power brick which came with a US-style three-pin plug that connects to the brick with a cloverleaf connection—watch out in your region if you have to replace the cable, as cloverleafs are less common than kettle leads. One of the 10 Gbps Ethernet ports is for the WAN hookup, but there's also an SFP+ port for direct fibre connections (the one on the review model is filled with an easily removable rubber bung) and you can even combo the two together for unheard of amounts of internet. Setup is a case of connecting to the Wi-Fi hotspot using the password (or QR code) printed on the bottom, and using the phone app or web interface to create passwords and go through a few simple questions. It's a very fast and easy process.

Assuming the Ethernet ports are at the back, it's one of the few routers to be deeper than it is wide, and as you're going to want the front and back of the unit to be accessible—there are buttons for WPS, Wi-Fi switch-off and more on the front, plus a USB port and on/off switch alongside the Ethernet on the back—it's going to be better installed sideways, so that it doesn't hang over the edge of a shelf and you can appreciate the RGB.

Oh yes. The coloured lighting plague that has led to desktop PC cases looking like Fourth of July celebrations and laptops projecting manufacturers' logos onto our knees has taken root on this router, with multi-hued LEDs buried in the vertical antenna plates and behind grilles that now, to return to the previous tortured Star Wars metaphor, look like engines. 

You can turn it off. There's a dedicated button. Use it.

The Archer GE800 is certainly not cheap, but it certainly is fast, and while the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 may be best experienced on a network with a particularly fat connection to the wider internet and a lot of separate devices to share those megabits between, a router like this is an upgrade for anyone still labouring away with Wi-Fi 5. One of the Ethernet ports is a ‘gaming port' which will prioritise your traffic if you plug your gaming PC into it, but really with a router operating at this level network congestion should be the least of your problems. There's automatic QoS on-board too, which claims to detect and optimise gaming traffic without you having to interfere—though you can tweak it—and Homeshield security. You even get access to the Gamers Private Network VPN service.

The published wireless throughput figures are as huge as the box it comes in, offering a whopping 11.5 gigs of 6 GHz bandwidth to play with, and over a gig on the longer-ranged 2.4 GHz band, which will be useful for that relative who hasn't updated their phone since 2010 (it is of course backwards compatible) and for when your fridge downloads a firmware update. You're not going to get all that in one go, even if you're transferring data to a networked SSD array, but it can be shared out among a lot of devices without succumbing to slowdown or latency. Some of this capability comes from using the latest version of the Wi-Fi spec, and some from a Qualcomm chipset that not so long ago we'd have been calling a flagship smartphone.

In testing, the GE800 manages something close to a perfect score, with no weird peaks and troughs. Each network gets faster as we move up the GHz scale, and there's a distinct drop off in transmission speed as the client device is moved away from the server and a few walls and a floor are put in between. It's all exactly as the Force predicted.

It may be large and expensive (though it's actually not the priciest router on the market), but there's no arguing with the results. If your wallet and shelving can take it, and you have a fast internet connection you want to distribute among multiple devices that can use Wi-Fi 7—or think you will have in the near future—then the TP-Link Archer GE800 has got your back with this one.

The main sell of the Razer BlackWidow V4 75% is that it's fully hot-swappable. Priced at $180/£190, it's a more affordable keeb offering this functionality when compared to the competition. This can be evidenced when contrasting with the pricier Asus ROG Azoth 75% at $250 / £270 and the full-size Mountain Everest Max at $200 / £190. It's rare when the boomslang brand can come out as the king of value given the company's boutique status and branding, but I'll take it. 

My review unit comes pre-loaded with third-generation Razer Orange tactile switches which are said to deliver a quiet typing experience. I can verify this; they are notably quieter than the manufacturer's Green Clicky switches but are a touch louder than its Analog Optical switches that you'll find in the likes of the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL. 

While no other sets of switches are included, you can buy new switches from Razer for $25 / £25 a piece. It would have been nice to have an extra set in the box to play with, but that would have seemingly undercut the more aggressive pricing here.

Handily, Razer has included a multi-tool for pulling keycaps and switches in the box. The Razer BlackWidow V4 is held together with just five Phillips head screws for ease of access. Once you've lifted the lid, you'll see the tape-enhanced PCB, the plate foam and the plate itself which you can slot the new switches in. The gaming keyboard supports both three and five-pin options, so it takes the manual labor of having to build a board entirely from scratch.  

Razer claims that the BlackWidow V4 75% has been made with an “optimized typing experience” in mind. As there's no way to change the actuation here, the company has instead fine-tuned a solution. From my experience, even as I write this review, I can say that it's among the best gaming keyboards that I've typed on, which surprised me given the form factor. It feels like a bigger deck than it is despite taking up less room than a TKL equivalent. 

What's also neat is how the design ethos of the full-size Razer BlackWidow V4 has been accurately carried over with the 75% version. This is evident in the new shrunken-down media roller in the top right matching the original in all but length, and the media buttons. You now get two instead of four, acting as pause and mute, but they get the job done. What's won me over, though, is the extra plush wrist rest, which is incredibly comfortable. A joy to use after becoming accustomed to harder plastic rests over the last few years. It may not sound like much, but if you work from home or want something to take into the office, it can make a difference. 

Speaking to the form factor, the 75% variant does a solid job of skirting the line of size and function. It's a touch smaller than a tenkeyless model, but larger than a 60% variant as touched upon above. That means you're benefiting from a full function key row and page keys. It does result in the overall board looking a little short and tall, but in practice, it works well. If you ever found a 60% too cramped to game or work on then maybe this slightly bigger deck could sway you. 

Gaming on the Razer BlackWidow V4 75% is a great experience. I've been spending more hours than I care to admit running through Dark Ages England in Assassin's Creed Valhalla and this deck did an excellent job of feeling sharp and responsive whether I was in combat situations with a group of irritated soldiers or on horseback through the fields. It also performed well in more immediate titles such as The Finals; just a couple of games in, and I was used to the smaller travel time of my hands to hit the keys against my usual full-size deck. 

It wouldn't be a Razer product if it didn't feature Chroma RGB in some capacity and this gaming keyboard is no exception to the rule. There's per-key lighting which can be tailored to your liking in the Synapse software from breathing to audio reactive, spectrum, ambient, etc. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but it works well. The lighting is bright and vivid even in the daylight hours and looks especially good contrasting against the all-white design. 

The decision of whether this new deck is right for you is going to depend on your preference. If you're in the market for a hot-swappable gaming keyboard which is cost-effective and compact then it's an easy recommendation. However, if you want more advanced features and a larger size then you may be better suited to an alternative, such as those touched on above. 

It's commendable that Razer was able to make this for well under $200 / £200 without sacrificing the build quality, so I think it's worth a go as a first foray into keyboard modding at the very least.

Though some of what it can do may be lost on more casually minded gamers.  

We’ve seen even mid-range gaming keyboards, such as the NXZT Function 2 and Wooting 60HE, offer dual actuation at the press of a button. However, the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL takes things a step further with its quick actuation point adjustment system. With the combined pressing of Fn and Tab, you can spin the media dial at the top to vary between a shallow 0.1 mm sensitivity to a far deeper 3.6 mm press. There are 10 steps in between which can be tweaked quickly, leading to a vastly different feeling keyboard experience in seconds. 

Smartly, Razer has included a light-up gauge above the arrow keys which demonstrates the key press before you settle into your final decision on the actuation point. That means you can experiment with what depth of feel works for you before confirming by hitting those two keys again followed by Esc. While it was initially a little fiddly at first, it quickly became second nature after a couple of goes. The bulk of my testing was spent all across the actuation spectrum from the shallowest to the highest—particularly when gaming or working.

To make things easier there are also onboard custom profiles straight out of the box if you’d rather just find a setting that works for you without having to mess about. As standard, the Factory Default features a 2.0 mm actuation, exactly in the middle, and delivers a smooth and fairly conventional typing and gaming experience. There’s perhaps too much play in the keys here for competitive gaming, but that’s where the other modes come into their own. 

Dubbed “FPS Rapid Trigger”, this quick setting changes the actuation of all keys to a more nimble 1.2 mm but with the slightest touch of 0.3 mm sensitivity recognized with the slightest press. It takes a little getting used to, but I was able to notice a good amount of difference when playing titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, The Finals, and Fortnite. 

Your mileage may vary with some of the onboard presets. This includes the likes of the “Racing” profile, which aims to emulate the triggers and left stick of a controller in the responsiveness. While it feels a bit better than using some other gaming keyboards, such as in my testing driving around Night City in Cyberpunk 2077, it just cannot beat the feel of the best PC controllers. 

"Analog WASD" largely does the same job in mimicking a controller’s left stick in my testing, which was most notable when making precise leaps in Clustertruck.

The Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL also features Rapid Trigger Adjustment, which is changed with Fn and Caps and tweaked with the dial the same way; you can choose exactly when you want those keys to register your presses, with the slightest tap or a more pronounced press. In short, it works really well, and the form factor is easy short-hand for profile tweaking as it’s all separated to the right-hand side. Without question, this is one of the nicest gaming keyboards I’ve used in my time. 

Speaking of the design, the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL looks excellent, especially in white. The rounded aluminium backplate gives it a premium look and feel with the promise that it can take many years of intense gaming punishment. That’s owing to the second-generation proprietary optical switches. The keys can get noisy when typing up a storm but not to the extent of the company’s Green Clicky or Orange Tactile mechanical switches. 

The TKL form factor is also a good middle ground between a full-size deck and a smaller travel-friendly model without compromising too many keys. As the acronym implies, it’s missing the numpad, but you’ve still got a full row of function keys and media options which may play better with some cramped gaming desks. As someone who traditionally uses full-size boards, I didn’t find myself missing anything in my day-to-day when I wasn’t gaming here, so that’s definitely a plus even though it’s not unique to this model. 

It’s hard to think of a Razer product that doesn’t have the company’s Chroma RGB lighting baked in and the Huntsman V3 Pro TKL is no exception. It may be how the backlit keys look against the white, but things don’t look as bright as some competitors I’ve seen. The lighting itself is nice and even for sure, and can be handily tweaked to your liking through the Synapse software, but even in the dark, it’s a little dimmer than I was expecting even when dialled up to full brightness. 

The Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL offers a wealth of customization options, which are going to be powerful for enthusiasts and handy for regular gamers, but it does come at a steep cost. Retailing for $220 / £220, it’s far from the cheapest model on the market, but so few of its rivals can offer this level of versatility. If you’re someone who takes competitive shooters and other genres seriously then you’ll love what this can do. However, if you’re not looking to make such small tweaks as you go then you may want to consider an alternative.

As much as you might term the SP3 BT as a set of ‘gaming speakers’, they’ve got a lot more personality and purpose than the traditional canon of desktop speakers with flashy lights and noticeably middling audio. Instead, because these have been approached from the angle of a company known for great audio developing speakers that can be used for general listening and gaming, it makes a difference to the end result.

And that end result is a set of speakers that sound sublime. They’re crisp and clear with plenty of body and punch for a smaller set of desktop speakers in comparison to monsters from other hi-fi giants such as KEF. Yes’ Roundabout, Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing, and Gloria Estefan’s Get On Your Feet demonstrated the speaker’s notable power and excellent soundstage, even if they were only separated by a 27-inch monitor on my 120cm desk. 

Roundabout also allowed the SP3 BT to flex its muscles with its low end, thanks to Chris Squire’s iconic, prominent bassline, which came through wonderfully with a fair bit of power, while the slow-building intro for Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing offered up a lot of punch with the song’s drums and Mark Knopfler’s meaty riff.

As much as the low end isn’t as prominent as with other units, the SP3 BT still served up plenty of immersion with gun fights in Counter Strike 2, or the cinematic goodness of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V. To be truthful, turning the game’s radio off and letting the hilarity of Los Santos waft past me while sitting in traffic in GTA Online is one of my favourite things to do, and the SP3 BT captured it wonderfully, especially with its brilliant separation. 

Of course, that was only in the moments when I wasn’t engaged in stupid gunfights against other players, at which point FiiO’s speakers managed to demonstrate its immersion with bullets flying in my general direction.

It’s on the front of the mids and the top-end where FiiO’s small desktop speakers really shine, though. Softer and simpler tracks such as Jimmy Buffett’s Migration or September Grass from James Taylor demonstrated how well it handles vocals, as well as the tonality of the acoustic guitar present in both tracks. It’s an energetic listen, as if the SP3 BT aims to please. The little cymbal inflections on Donald Fagen’s marvellous I.G.Y were presented with precision, while the brass section, synth and Fagen’s vocals were rich and smooth.

Moving away from audio, the SP3 BT offer some excellent connectivity with a wide range of choices including USB-C, 3.5 mm, Optical, Coaxial and RCA line-in. With this being the Bluetooth model, FiiO’s desktop marvel also supports Bluetooth 5.0 while managing to support a large flavour of wireless audio codecs with SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX LL, aptX Adaptive and LDAC all within the SP3 BT’s remit. 

They worked flawlessly over wired means to my desktop gaming PC or over wireless means with my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, 16-inch MacBook Pro and also with hi-res DAPs such as the Shanling M0 Pro and FiiO’s own M11S. There is also app control available with the FiiO Control app which allows you to control EQ settings and install firmware updates for instance, although you can’t control the SP3 BT’s volume level. Volume control is handled with a small dial on the back of the right speaker, while there is also a bass dial if you’d like some more low-end.

These are also seriously well-built with an entirely metal frame which puts comparable choices from more mainstream brands in the shade. The SP3 BT is made from die-cast aluminium, with the units weighing in at 1.95 kg and 1.66 kg respectively. Combined, that’s a 3.61 kg mass, which for a set of speakers that only have a 2.5 L volume makes them rather dense.

Their ribbed front and side panels are tasteful, echoing cabinets with a much higher price tag, while the rubber bases help to reduce vibration and keep the SP3 BT safe and sound on your desk. The small RGB lighting at their base is tasteful, too. It switches between different combinations of colours by default, although it also helps to denote when the SP3 BT is in pairing mode, or which wireless audio codec is being used when using the speakers wirelessly.

Then, of course, there’s the price. The SP3 BT’s $349/£319/€379 asking price makes them more expensive than comparable choices such as the SteelSeries Arena 7, while choosing to go without a sub-woofer compared to SteelSeries’ choice. However, I’d argue that FiiO’s sound better with a more precise and clear sound, while its controls are a lot more accessible, being on the unit itself as opposed to hidden away on a sub-woofer. They’re also smaller overall too, and fit well on desks big and small.

FiiO’s SP3 BT may not be a set of speakers you’d have initially considered for use as PC speakers with both games and music, but they’re marvellous performers for a reasonable price, all things considered. They look fab while offering precise and enjoyable audio and are versatile too, with the welcome addition of Bluetooth connectivity compared to their siblings. 

If you’re after a set of marvellous, small desktop speakers for an equally excellent price, the SP3 BT is just wonderful.

Which brings us neatly to the Xiaomi G27i, an extremely cheap IPS monitor. It definitely lacks sex appeal in its specs—for a 27-inch monitor we'd usually be expecting a 1440p resolution, and the Xiaomi is defiantly stuck in 2015 at 1080p. But it does sport a 165Hz refresh rate and, at just $140, would make an excellent budget choice if you're into pushing lower resolutions at many frames per second. And chances are that if it's at this price already, future sales are going to drop down mighty close to that $100 point.

To get to this price point there have had to be sacrifices, and the G27i comes without speakers (but you never used the built-in speakers on your monitor anyway) and a sparse selection of inputs—just a single HDMI 2.0 and a lone DisplayPort.

There's a 3.5mm audio jack to pipe the sound to your headphones or desktop speakers, and a connection to the external power brick, which on my review model came with a US-style two-pin plug despite the fact I reside in a country with a superior style of power socket. International buyers might like to look out for this, and prepare to purchase an adapter. 

The inputs are also at 90° to the plane of the monitor, meaning the plugs stick out when they're inserted rather than being flush to the back. This means you may encounter an annoying gap when trying to place it against a wall. The stand that comes with the screen is also somewhat basic, requiring two screws to assemble (though there's a screwdriver in the box) and lacking any vertical adjustability. 

Even the tilt is limited, and once you've got it properly situated in your eyeline using a stack of PC Gamer back issues, you won't want to move it around too much. Fans of adjustable arms attached to a VESA mount will be able to attach it to four screw holes bored through the plastic casing, but there's no moulded recess for the connection plate to slot into. It's what you might call basic.

Despite all this moaning, it's important to remember that you've only paid the equivalent of a three-pint lunch in a London gastropub for this screen, and its performance is really not bad at all. Under the baleful eye of a colorimeter it gave us 99% of the sRGB colour gamut, and 80% of the more specialised Adobe RGB and P3 colour ranges. That's better than some laptops, and while its (tested) maximum brightness output score of 275 nits (Windows 11 claims a 400-nit peak in its Advanced Display panel) is lower than many other screens, it's perfectly good enough unless you're intending to use it in direct sunlight. 

Any screen is an outdoor screen if you're brave enough, but the natural habitat of a monitor like this is more likely to be on a desk than in the middle of a field. Unless your desk is in the middle of a field, of course.

An extra little bit of brightness is always good if you're going to be displaying an HDR picture, and while the G27i supports HDR10 it's off by default and you'll need to delve into the menu to enable it. You will lose the ability to adjust other picture settings once HDR mode is switched on, meaning the brightness is out of your hands.

The OSD Xiaomi has chosen to integrate into this monitor is an example to other manufacturers about how things should be done. The simple purple multi-way controller (a joystick by any other name) on the back of the screen brings up a simple series of menus with the important functions, such as brightness adjustment, right at the top. Freesync Premium needs to be switched on in this way too, and you can improve response time with game mode. A warning about increased power consumption appears if you push brightness up above 50% and enable HDR, but with 1,000W PSUs thundering away inside our rigs, when have PC gamers ever cared about that?

So, buy cheap buy twice? Not here. This may be a particularly cheap example of the IPS arts, but if its 1080p resolution is enough for you—perhaps you're more interested in the 165Hz refresh rate—then having a 27in screen is a nice step up from a 21 or 24in model. Sure, there are bigger, brighter, sharper, faster monitors on the market, but some of them cost ten times as much, and building a gaming PC is not exactly the cheapest way to get into first person shooters as it is. There's always space in the market for a budget screen—you can even get two and look like Hollywood's idea of a hacker for the same price you might pay for a 'premium' model—and when such reasonably priced displays are as good as this one, you can end up asking yourself why you need to part with more cash.

The B760I Lightning WiFi can be considered a second generation B760 board. It's been given some tweaks and an upgraded power delivery subsystem that's better able to handle the demands of 14th Generation Intel CPUs.

Recently, I reviewed the ASRock Z790I Lightning WiFi. While that board is a very good one, at around $279 I felt it didn't offer enough over the $185 B760I version. That's because apart from PCIe bifurcation and overclocking support, both board's specs are mostly identical, leaving few reasons to opt for the Z790I version over the B760I one. That's a good omen for the latter.

Though support for ultra-fast memory is not essential for a gaming system, it'll only become more useful as DDR5 speeds march ever-higher. The B760I Lightning supports blazing fast DDR5-8600 (OC) memory. Along with the Z790I version, it is the only board I've tested to date that allowed me to run a Teamgroup DDR5-8200 kit out of the box with just XMP enabled. That's really impressive.  It supports up to 96 GB of memory, though I wouldn't be surprised to see a BIOS update that adds support for 128 GB in the future.

The other major highlight is its excellent VRM. It's among the very best you'll find on any Mini-ITX board, let alone a B760 one. It's a 14+1+1 phase solution with 110a stages. That's more than capable of powering an i9 14900K or KS. 

The two heatsink sections are connected via a heatpipe. There is a small embedded fan but it was hardly noticeable during my testing. It really is a top class power delivery system. 

As is the case with all Mini-ITX boards, the lack of PCB space means you'll have to put up with some restrictions when it comes to headers and auxiliary controllers. There are three fans headers, plus another for the VRM fan. There are two ARGB headers, plus USB 2.0 and USB 3.1 Gen (5 Gbps) headers. A 10 Gbps header would be nice to see, but USB 20 Gbps support is not really expected in this price range. 

The board supports two PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs. One slot is located above the x16 slot, while the other heatsink-less one is located on the rear of the board.  These slots are joined by three SATA ports. You'll have to look to Z790 if you must have Gen 5 SSD support, though the primary PCIe x16 slot does support Gen 5.

The B760I Lightning WiFi is a bit lacking in the rear I/O. There are welcome DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports for use with integrated Xe graphics, but the USB complement is made up of just four Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports and two Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports. There's no BIOS flashback support, but that's less of an issue for the B760I Lightning compared to first generation B760 boards such as the MSI MPG B760I Edge WiFi, which will likely lack native 14th Gen support unless its been shipped from the factory with an updated BIOS.

I like the inclusion of an S/PDIF port, even if the audio codec is a cheap ALC897 one. 2.5G LAN duties are provided by a Realtek RTL8125BG controller, while an Intel AX210 M.2 E-Key card gives WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support. 

System Performance

Gaming Performance

As expected from a mature platform, there is little to separate LGA 1700 boards from one another in regards to performance these days. What differences there are mostly fall within a margin of error.

An important thing to note is that I used an i9 14900K and RTX 4090 GPU. The fact that this little board will happily run such a demanding CPU without a hint of an issue or a problem with VRM cooling is a real testament to the capabilities of the B760I Lightning WiFi. This is a sub $185 Mini-ITX board we're talking about.

With the B760I Lightning WiFi, ASRock has knocked it out of the park if you're after an affordable and solid foundation for a high-performance rig. It will happily handle any 12th, 13th or 14th generation CPU you wish to name. Chuck in a 14900K, plus a set of DDR5-8000+ and you'll have the foundation of a supremely fast gaming rig by any standard, let alone a Mini-ITX one.

It's not perfect though. I'd like to see a stronger USB complement. Even a pair of USB 2.0 ports on the back for a keyboard and mouse would be a significant improvement. A 20 Gbps USB port would be a cherry on top, but these weaknesses can be overlooked on a board that costs just $185.

You'll still miss out on an M.2 slot or two, four memory slots and space for expansion cards compared to an ATX board, but those are necessary sacrifices for any Mini-ITX system.

I'd honestly question the need to spend more for a Z790 Mini-ITX board unless you plan to overclock your CPU. The ASRock B760I Lightning WiFi is nearly $100 cheaper than its near identical Z790I Lighting WiFi counterpart. That's enough of a saving to put towards a better CPU or GPU, which is where real performance improvements come from.

TP-Link has produced a striking-looking router in the AXE75, taking the standard rectangular wedge with antennas up the back so beloved of tech designers and adding into the mix a geometric pattern and a smooth, angled area. It stands out from other routers that follow the same basic shape, but that pattern is sure going to collect dust. Around the back there's nothing unusual, with four gigabit Ethernet ports, a gigabit WAN port, power connector, on/off switch, and further buttons for WPS, reset, and turning the LEDs and Wi-Fi on and off.

The router comes as an already assembled unit, though there are individual plastic sheaths tightly wrapped around each of the six antennas that you'll spend ages picking at with your fingernails to remove. Why they don't slide straight off is a mystery. There's also a peel-off sheet of plastic over a section on top of the unit, that you might not even notice until it bubbles up. Power comes via an external adapter with a cable about 1.5m long, so you'll need to position the router at least that close to a socket.

Setup is very straightforward. Plug it in and switch it on, then use the Wi-Fi network name and password printed on the bottom, or the QR code, to connect the TP-Link Tether app on your phone. Set an admin password, then (in a step that foxed me for a moment because I'm dumb) enter that password, and you're in. You can also do this from a web browser, and once you've got access to the admin page you can separate out the three Wi-Fi bands, which are bundled together by default, and enable the guest network and parental controls.

Wi-Fi 6E is Wi-Fi 6 that extends into the 6GHz band, which can give you additional 160 MHz channels to play with. Wi-Fi 7 would double these to 320 MHz wide, but even so Wi-Fi 6E gives you a lot of extra capacity over previous versions. As higher frequencies have a harder time penetrating the bits of our homes that make them homes—the walls and floors—the 6 GHz channels are better for fast, short-range links, such as a gaming PC in the same room as the router. This, in turn, frees up capacity on the 5 GHz network for your phones and tablets, and on the 2.4 GHz spectrum for IoT and legacy devices. 

OFDMA, or orthogonal frequency-division multiple access—a new Wi-Fi 6 technology—allows these channels to be further split up if a device isn't using them to their fullest, for simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users. 

This means a Wi-Fi 6 network is better at handling lots of light-use devices, such as smart lightbulbs and coffee machines, while you keep the 6 GHz network free for those multi-gig Steam downloads and low-ping gaming sessions. Another bit of cleverness, MU-MIMO, which allows multiple nodes and antennas to communicate with each other simultaneously, came in with Wi-Fi 5, but in Wi-Fi 6 and 6E is can be applied in both the down and up link directions, instead of just down as was the case in Wi-Fi 5. This means you'll get a boost in capacity for uploads as well as downloads, which is important for keeping latency down when gaming.

The best thing about getting a Wi-Fi 6E router now rather than a Wi-Fi 7 model is that you'll save a bit of cash, as the slightly older tech doesn't attract the price premium of the new hotness. The TP-Link AXE75 is one of the more reasonably priced Wi-Fi 6E routers on the market, with Netgear's RAXE300 going for over £100 more, Asus' RT-AXE7800 adding £70 to your bill and Acer's Predator Connect W6 needing £40 more in terms of outlay.

These results, carried out in a reasonably modern suburban house without a Faraday cage built into the walls and not a tinfoil hat in sight, are a little odd. The 5 GHz close-by result is faster than the 6 GHz band's speed, and we'd usually expect it to be the other way around. As the two networks share a hypothetical throughput speed they should be allowing data to pass at about the same rate, especially up close. That 5 GHz connection is seriously fast, however, so it's not worth moaning about—it's unusual to see a wireless connection that can actually outstrip a wired one in real-world use.

As fast fibre internet connections continue their rollout, a router like this increasingly makes sense, as internet connections get faster and are shared between more devices, and as games get larger and take longer to download. It can also make a useful hub for a home network if you're running a media server or networked backup solution, and the ability to handle multiple connections at once is almost as important as straight-line speed. 

A Wi-Fi 6E router is starting to look like yesterdays news compared to the very best Wi-Fi 7 models, but networking equipment isn't a sexy purchase, and if you'd rather save your money toward RGB RAM or a step up the graphics card hierarchy, then getting one that supplies enough throughput and the extra features of Wi-Fi 6E is a good way to do it. 

In our testing, the AXE75 provided a particularly fast 5 GHz connection when uncongested and up-close, meaning gamers with a speedy internet connection will be able to download over wireless without suffering too much in the way of slowdown. And the price is low enough that if you're after a speedy gaming router on a budget, this neat little TP-Link Archer will hit the target.

Well, that's the idea at least, but in practice, it's not quite as simple as just pressing a button. The first thing you need to do is remove the magnetically attached side buttons on the left and blank covers on the right and replace them with inverted ones included in the box.

I'm certainly not hamfisted in any way but oh boy, is it a fiddly process. At least once that's done, all you need to do then is head into the iCUE application, click on the settings cog icon for the M75 Wireless, and then select left-hand mode. And there you have it—a universal gaming mouse.

But is it a good universal gaming mouse? I mean, being all righty-lefty is well and good, but if it fails at being a decent mouse in the first place, then all that's for nought. Fortunately, the Corsair M75 Wireless is a good gaming mouse. It's not a great one, mind, but it's not so far off being that way that the next revision of it could be perfect.

In terms of hardware, nothing is outstanding about it, but what's there is perfectly fine—five buttons in total, sporting 'zero gap' optical switches under the main mouse buttons, a decent optical sensor, and a low-latency 2.4 GHz wireless dongle. Oh, and RGB lighting underneath the logo and in the mouse's base. All of these are pretty much standard fare on a $100+ gaming mouse these days, but they all work perfectly well.

As to what doesn't work perfectly well is a subjective matter. For example, the M75 Wireless weighs 89 g—that's not very heavy but neither is it especially light. Corsair does make an RGB-less version of the M75 Wireless (the M75 Air Wireless) that's a full 20 g lighter and it's also cheaper.

Compared to some mice I've been testing of late, the M75 feels a tad cumbersome and in part, I think it's down to the mass distribution within the chassis.

All wireless mice require a rechargeable battery, of course, and the one in this Corsair model is good for 105 hours via the 2.4 GHz Slipstream wireless connection and with the RGB lighting disabled.

That increases to 210 hours via a Bluetooth connection but you wouldn't want to do any fast gaming on that system. Either way, that's a pretty decent amount of battery life and Corsair's figures do seem accurate from my time using the M75 Wireless.

I suspect the mouse has quite a large battery inside it and it feels like it's located a little too much toward the front of the mouse, rather than being located more toward the natural pivot (i.e. your wrist). Along with the somewhat narrow PTFE feet on the base, the M75 Wireless doesn't glide around as effortlessly as, say, a Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro.

The side buttons and wheel aren't perfect, either. The former are low profile and in the middle of a frantic round, my thumb didn't always push them in properly, causing the game to not register the button click.

The wheel is a solid affair but there's a little more resistance to movement than I'd like, especially in a gaming mouse. In general use, it's adequate but compared to Logitech's brilliant MagSpeed wheel system, it feels stiff and sluggish.

If you're a fan of RGB lighting, you might be pleased to see that the M75 Wireless is replete with the stuff—the top logo and side strips, as well as the back edge of the base, can be set independently, with the usual gamut of colours and timing patterns offered by Corsair's iCUE app.

It's quite a subtle affair, even at full brightness, though I can't help but wonder what's the point in having a logo light up when it'll be covered by your hand during use.

And speaking of use, Corsair's Slipstream wireless system boasts a 2,000 Hz polling rate—that's more than what most gamers would ever really need but it's also somewhat moot, as the USB port in which the dongle resides is only polled at the standard 1,000 Hz rate.

Using Mouse Tester to examine the performance of the optical sensor and wireless signalling system shows that while the M75 Wireless tracks very accurately, the connection isn't as flawless as Razer's HyperSpeed tech.

The second chart above shows several samples with very long update times (well over the 10 milliseconds it should take). Compared to a DeathAdder Viper V3 Pro I tested on the same PC, it's clear that Corsair's Slipstream system isn't as good as Razer's HyperSpeed.

I tested the dongle in a variety of different USB ports but the test results were the roughly same in all of them—the spikes were still always there, just that in some cases they were no more than 30 milliseconds but sometimes well over 150 milliseconds. 

In most games, the spikes in update times weren't noticeable at all but there were a few occasions in Counter Strike 2 where the screen and mouse weren't totally in sync. Whether that was down to the mouse is hard to tell, though.

Corsair doesn't market the M75 Wireless as being a 'pro gamer' model, so the standard polling rate will be fine for most gamers, but if you want something that's ultra-fast all the time, then you're going to be better off checking out another wireless gaming mouse.

With an MSRP of $130/£130/€130, the Corsair M75 Wireless isn't a budget-orientated gaming mouse by any means and there's a lot of competition in this price segment—even from within Corsair's own range. The best wireless gaming mouse you can buy right now, Razer's DeathAdder V3 Pro, is around $30 more expensive and is for right-handers only, but it's lighter, faster, and much nicer to game with.

I'd be reluctant to hand over the full amount for something that's not perfect for me. But right now in the US, Corsair's offering is just $90 and at that price, it's a really good deal. This isn't a bad gaming mouse—it's genuinely a good mouse—but small niggles tend to grate in time.

But if it lost a bit of weight, had a nicer wheel, and came with larger profile side buttons, I'd certainly consider it to be a great option for any PC gamer. Even if you're using the wrong hand to control it. Sorry, lefties.