Computex 2018
One of the most impressive motherboard designs coming out of Computex was MSI’s new X399 Creation motherboard. With Threadripper 2 around the corner, sporting support for up to 32 cores and 250W TDP, a couple of the motherboard manufacturers are building X399 ‘refresh’ motherboards that are optimized for the new processors, and this is MSI’s very impressive effort. The headline from this motherboard is the 19 power phases, arranged as 16 for the processor. This is likely a four-phase implementation with two doublers, but still comes in as eight more than the amount of phases for the CPU compared to any other Threadripper motherboard on the market. The effect of using more phases in this way means that the power multiplexing over time that occurs...
Silicon Power Has a Host of USB-C Peripherals: MicroSD Card Reader, Dongles & Docks
The USB Type-C interface yet has to become as ubiquitous as USB Type-A, but as there are laptops that only have USB-C ports, a number of manufacturers already produce...
6 by Anton Shilov on 6/29/2018
Azio Expands Lineup of ‘Retro Classic’ Peripherals with Mice, Pads, Palm Rests
Azio’s eye-catching Retro Classic mechanical keyboards launched last year seem to be quite a success for the company, as it now plans to expand the family of ‘Retro Classic&rsquo...
9 by Anton Shilov on 6/29/2018
Comino Crypto Mining Rigs: Liquid-Cooled 16 GPUs in a 4U Server
Cryptocurrency mining has made quite a dent in the hardware industry in the last couple of years. Motherboard manufacturers have built special platforms for mining rigs, video card vendors...
59 by Anton Shilov on 6/27/2018
ADATA Readies XPG SX7100 Realtek RTS5763DL-Based SSD
While the number of companies participating in the SSD market is booming, ADATA ended up being only large SSD vendor that adopted Realtek’s first-generation RST5760 SSD controller for its...
3 by Anton Shilov on 6/27/2018
ASMedia Preps ASM2824 PCIe 3.0 Switch
Back in 2016 Avago/Broadcom greatly increased the prices of its PLX-branded PCIe switches, which caused many motherboard manufacturers to cease using them. Avago’s motivation was rather obvious — PCIe...
20 by Anton Shilov on 6/27/2018
PNY Preps External Elite-X Portable SSD with USB-C 3.1 Interface: Up to 800 MB/s
PNY demonstrated its new external SSD at Computex earlier this month. The new Elite-X Portable SSD uses a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface and a USB Type-C connector, thus...
22 by Anton Shilov on 6/26/2018
Alphacool Eisblock GPX: A Waterblock with Vertical and Horizontal Connectors
One of the unexpected discoveries on the showfloor at Computex this year was a waterblock from Alphacool. As part of the Eis (‘Ice’) family, the Eisblock GPX is a...
12 by Ian Cutress on 6/25/2018
An EpicGear Turnkey PC Gaming Café: Beam Me Up Scotty
One of the phrases I no longer hear in this industry is ‘Cyber Café’. A remnant of the past, at least here in the west, a gaming or cyber...
12 by Ian Cutress on 6/25/2018
PLDS Readies EB1: A Slim External Ultra-HD Blu-Ray Player (and Burner)
In our world, Lite-On is known usually as the maker of Plextor-branded SSDs, but Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corp. (PLDS), a joint venture between Philips Electronics N.V. and...
15 by Anton Shilov on 6/25/2018
AIC Shows Dual NF1 to U.2 SSD Adapter
After the official announcement last week of Samsung’s new 8TB NF1 drive, I went back through my Computex photo kit to dig out a couple of images I snapped...
3 by Ian Cutress on 6/25/2018
New Realtek PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe Controllers: RTS5762 & RTS5763DL up to 3.5 GB/s
The market of SSDs is expanding rather rapidly, which encourages new companies to enter the scene. Realtek introduced its first SSD controller two years ago targeting primarily entry-level PCIe...
12 by Anton Shilov on 6/25/2018
AIC’s Grays Peak Server with Intel ‘EDSFF’ Ruler SSDs
In the consumer space, we get SATA drives, mSATA drives, M.2 drives, and for the high end, U.2 drives. By contrast, the enterprise space is expanding: U.2 is a...
7 by Ian Cutress on 6/25/2018
Cooler Master Readies New Thermal Compound with 11 W/mK Conductivity
Cooler Master is prepping to release its new thermal compound that will have the highest conductivity among all thermal pastes/greases ever released by the company. The new paste is...
21 by Anton Shilov on 6/25/2018
Hands On with Apexgaming X-Mars Case with 14 Fans: No, It Does Not Take Off
Apexgaming — a joint venture between Apextechusa and Solytech Cooperation — is a relatively new kid on the gaming block. The two aforementioned companies created the brand to address...
13 by Anton Shilov on 6/22/2018
MSI Optix MAG491C Hands-On: A 49-Inch 32:9 LCD with FreeSync
Earlier this month MSI demonstrated its ultrawide curved 49-inch gaming display at Computex. The unit uses a mass-produced panel and already has a model number, so its launch is...
17 by Anton Shilov on 6/22/2018
Colorful to Branch Out to Memory Modules
One of the surprises that this year’s Computex brought was renewed interest of various hardware suppliers towards memory modules. We saw GIGABYTE and Antec launching their Aorus and Antec...
5 by Anton Shilov on 6/22/2018
Shuttle Shows Off Coffee Lake-Powered Barebones Mini PCs
Shuttle is largely considered to be the father of the modern barebones mini PC market, as the company was the first to mass produce such products in the early...
12 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2018
SilverStone Preps IP68 Water- and Dust- Proof Enclosure for 2.5-Inch Drives
Rugged as well as water/dust-proof hardware usually comes in specially designed factory-sealed enclosures and is sold at a premium. SilverStone believes that if an enclosure is made right, it...
4 by Anton Shilov on 6/21/2018
MSI’s Four-Way M.2 PCIe Card: It Looks Like a GPU
Having seen both ASUS and ASRock’s PCIe cards that support four M.2 NVMe drives each at a x4 connection at CES, and then GIGABYTE’s prototype card at Computex, there...
47 by Ian Cutress on 6/21/2018
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