TechPowerUp

Time 2020-07-17 18:04:20

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Microsoft in a statement announced they have halted production of the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, the current-generation consoles that are currently being sold under the Xbox brand. The move comes in preparation for the Holiday 2020 release of the Xbox Series X and its badly-kept secret sister, the (likely?) Xbox Series S. This will allow the retail channel to digest available inventory and open up space for the impending consoles' release.This move by Microsoft all but confirms that the company will be launching a companion, lower-priced, lower-performing console alongside the Xbox Series X. Microsoft knows that launching the most powerful console also means (most likely) launching the most expensive one, and the company knows they must cater to more budget-conscious consumers as well. Check after the break for the complete Microsoft statement. Read full story O2Keys is a new international online merchant of discounted genuine software, helping you save big on software, letting you spend more on hardware. It also helps you set up a powerful home office, thanks to some of the lowest prices on the web for genuine Windows 10, Office 2016, and Office 2019, along with combinations of their various editions. With a TechPowerUp-exclusive coupon code, get genuine Windows 10 Pro for USD $8.80. A twin-pack is also available for $14.42. Office 2016 Professional Plus is a powerful and contemporary productivity suite, and a lifetime valid license can be had for as little as $23.99. Pair it with Windows 10 Pro for just $28. Fancy the latest version? Get Office 2019 Professional Plus for $30.12. O2Keys uses the PayPal payment gateway, which protects your payment instruments, so you can shop with confidence. Apply the coupon code SOK42 on the following items at check-out to avail the prices you see here.Buy Windows 10 Pro for $8.80 | Buy Windows 10 Home for $9.46 | Buy Windows 10 Pro for $14.42 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 for $10.59Use the coupon code SOK57 on the following items to avail these prices.Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus for $23.99 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional at $28 | Buy Windows 10 Home + Office 2016 Professional at $28.30Use the code SOK55 on the following items.Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $30.12 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional for $35.56 | Buy Windows 10 Home + Office 2019 Professional for $36.58 QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the TS-x53DU series NAS. Available in 4-bay, 8-bay and 12-bay models, the TS-x53DU series has two 2.5 GbE RJ45 ports to enable smoother multimedia playback and everyday usage. The TS-x53DU series also supports Snapshot backup and HBS (Hybrid Backup Sync) for local, off-site and cloud backup.The TS-x53DU series are powered by Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core 2.0 GHz processors (burst up to 2.7 GHz) and support up to 8 GB DDR4 memory. With Intel AES-NI encryption and two 2.5 GbE RJ45 ports, the TS-x53DU provides users with fast and secure storage. The PCIe 2.0slot allows users to enhance core NAS functionality by installing a compatible PCIe card (such as a network card, a QM2 network/storage card for adding SSD caching/10 GbE connectivity). Read full story A performance review of the Intel Core i5-L16G7 Lakefield Hybrid processor (powering a Samsung Galaxy S notebook) was recently published by Golem.de, which provides an in-depth look at Intel's ambitious new processor design that sets in motion the two new philosophies Intel will build its future processors on - packaging modularity provided by innovative new chip packaging technologies such as Foveros; and Hybrid processing, where there are two sets of CPU cores with vastly different microarchitectures and significantly different performance/Watt curves that let the processor respond to different kinds of workloads while keeping power-draw low. This concept was commercially proliferated first by Arm, with its big.LITTLE topology that took to the market around 2013. The Lakefield i5-L16G7 combines a high-performance Sunny Cove CPU core with four smaller Tremont cores, and Gen11 iGPU.The Golem.de report reveals that Windows 10 thread scheduler is aware of the hybrid multi-core topology of Lakefield, and that it is able to classify workloads at a very advanced level so the right kind of core is in use at any given time. The Sunny Cove core is called upon when interactive vast serial processing loads are in demand. This could even be something like launching applications, new tabs in a multi-process web-browser, or less-parallelized media encoding. The four Tremont cores keep the machine cruising, handling much of the operational workload of an application, and is also better tuned to cope with highly parallelized workloads. This is similar to a hybrid automobile, where the combustion engine provides tractive effort from 0 kph, while the electric motor sustains a cruising speed. Read full story Chinese silicon manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) has officially made a debut on the Chinese science and technology innovation board (STAR) as of today. After submitting a proposal 16 days ago, SMIC already managed to start trading its shares on the STAR board of China's Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). Why this is important you might wonder? Well now SMIC can collect more funds and invest that into node development, so the Chinese semiconductor industry is about to boom. Being the biggest semiconductor manufacturer in China, SMIC takes the lead and every development from the company is big for the Chinese semiconductor industry.SMIC is currently trading on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) where it used to trade exclusively. With SSE now included, it is easier for the company to trade. SMIC also submitted a proposal last year in May to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) so it can get the attention of Western investors. If the company manages to successfully raise all the funds for node development, then the Chinese semiconductor industry is about to flourish. AMD's top upcoming Socket AM4 desktop APU, the Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G, was put through Geekbench 5, as discovered by TUM_APISAK. The processor produced performance figures in the league of the popular Ryzen 7 3700X desktop processor. Both are 8-core/16-thread processors based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture, but while the 3700X has additional L3 cache and added power budget for the CPU cores (as the processor completely lacks an iGPU); the PRO 4750G offers a Radeon Vega 8 iGPU with its engine clock above 2.00 GHz. Both chips were compared on Geekbench 5.2.2.The single-core performance of both the PRO 4750G and 3700X are similar, with the PRO 4750G scoring 1239 points, and the 3700X scoring 1266 points. The 3700X has a slight upper hand with multi-core performance, with 9151 points compared to 8228 points of the PRO 4750G. This is attributable to the 3700X enjoying four times the L3 cache size. The Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G is expected to be the top desktop SKU based on the 7 nm Renoir silicon that features eight Zen 2 CPU cores, and an iGPU based on the Vega graphics architecture, featuring 8 NGCUs amounting to 512 stream processors. The processor features AMD PRO feature-set that make it fit for use in commercial desktops in large business environments. Apple has recently announced its transition from Intel-based Mac computers to custom Arm-based Apple silicon equipped Macs. The speculations for such transition have lasted a few years and we finally got that confirmation. So the question remains: who will manufacture Apple's custom processors for Arm-based Macs? The answer is pretty simple. It is TSMC who will again become Apple's main supplier of silicon. With its broad offerings of the latest silicon nodes, it was no brainer choice for Apple. Combined with the history of collaboration with Apple, TSMC was the only choice for new Apple silicon. Whatever the company will use the new 5 nm node or use the old 7 nm one, the question remains. TSMC expects to see huge orders from Apple in the second half of 2021, for Apple silicon, so Apple will become perhaps the biggest customer of TSMC. It is also worth pointing out that Apple will be using ASMedia's USB controller for Arm-based Macs, as the original report suggests. Intel's upcoming Core i9-10850K processor started appearing as a configurator option on Digital Storm pre-built gaming desktops. The 10-core/20-thread Socket LGA1200 processor comes with an unlocked multiplier, but is positioned between the $440 Core i9-10900 (locked) processor and the $499 i9-10900K flagship part. Intel differentiates the i9-10900K from the i9-10850K by stripping the latter of the Thermal Velocity Boost feature. The processor now has a maximum boost frequency of 5.20 GHz, and it gets there using the Turbo Boost Max 3.0 algorithm. The lack of TVB is attributable to the processor model numbering being i9-108xx rather than i9-109xx. Despite being locked parts, the i9-10900 and i9-10900F get TVB.It's still not known if Intel will release the Core i9-10850K to the DIY retail channel, but the fact that it's surfacing on a pre-built vendor's site points to the possibility of the chip being OEM-exclusive, and even begins to explain its raison d'être. Thermal Velocity Boost is a cooling-sensitive feature, and hitting the advertised 5.30 GHz TVB frequency comes with steep cooling requirements for OEMs, which they probably could do with less of. The processor should still perform nearly on-par with the i9-10900K in most scenarios, including gaming. Our review of the i9-10900 shows how you could potentially save $60 over choosing the i9-10900K, if you didn't plan on serious overclocking for the latter. With Intel's pricing of the i9-10850K, we can deduce that Intel values Thermal Velocity Boost at $50 (i9-10850K vs. i9-10900K), and unlocked multiplier at $10 (i9-10900 vs. i9-10850K). Chenbro has launched the RB23708, a Level 6, 2U rackmount server barebone designed for mission-critical, storage-focused applications in Data Center and HPC Enterprise. The RB23708 is pre-integrated with an Intel Server Board S2600WFTR that supports up to two 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Cascade Lake Processors.The RB23708 is an easy-to-use barebones server solution that pre-integrates a 2-socket Intel Server Board to ensure a flexible, scalable design with mission-critical reliability. Notably, it offers Apache Pass, IPMI 2.0 Redfish compliance, and includes Intel RSTe/Intel VROC options, providing an ideal solution for hosting Video, IMS, SaaS and similar storage-focused applications. Read full story Death Stranding is one of the most successful titles on the PlayStation. This week, Kojima has released it for PC. We took a detailed look at the graphics that this port can deliver and tested it on 27 graphics cards at three resolutions. DLSS comparison images are included, too. QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched its first 2.5 GbE network switch - the QSW-1105-5T. Featuring five 2.5 GbE ports, plug-and-play set up, automatic loop detection and blocking, and auto-negotiation functions, the QSW-1105-5T allows users to easily build a 2.5 GbE network environment for their home or business. For those looking to upgrade their network environment, the QSW-1105-5T 2.5 GbE strikes a balance between performance and cost. Users can instantly upgrade their network environment to 2.5 GbE using existing network cables, allowing them to take advantage of next-generation 2.5 GbE NAS and computers, said Frank Liao, Product Manager of QNAP. Read full story ASUS today announced Mini PC PN50, an ultra-compact computer that delivers powerful performance for a wide variety of home and business applications. Featuring the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile processors with Radeon Vega 7 graphics, and support for high-speed 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, Mini PC PN50 is ready to take on demanding workloads, yet its diminutive size takes up minimal space on a desk and makes it suited for applications where traditional PCs will not fit - from digital signage to home-theater setups.Mini PC PN50 supports up to 8K resolution at 60 Hz or up to four displays simultaneously, with up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz, providing ultrarealistic visuals. It is also suitable for flexible business scenarios, with configurable port options. WiFi 6 (802.11ax) networking ensures stable, high-speed data transfers, even in crowded networking environments, and dual USB-C ports support data transfer and DisplayPort functionality over a single cable. Mini PC PN50 is also ready for Microsoft Cortana, with integrated dual-array front microphones for convenient voice control, and features an infrared (IR) sensor, letting users control applications via remote control. HDMI CEC can also be enabled to wake the display from standby or to turn on Mini PC PN50. Read full story People use technology to make their lives easier and to discover exciting ways of staying entertained at home. Whether you're embracing PC gaming for the first time or have been a passionate gaming devotee for years and just need an upgrade, Lenovo is committed to bringing you technologies that are not only smarter but also offer more choices to more people. We actively listen to feedback from the gaming community and understand that gamers want fun, immersive experiences in sleek-looking devices with stellar FPS performance at the best value. In short, players want more choices.That's why following the recent launch of our new Lenovo Legion lineup this spring that focused on customer-inspired innovations such as a better keyboard and thermals, our engineering team worked on expanding even more Windows 10 PC options for gaming enthusiasts. The expansion won't cut corners on performance, graphics, or display either. Available starting this summer, we've added AMD Ryzen mobile and desktop processors to five new Lenovo Legion gaming PCs—the 17-inch Lenovo Legion 5 laptop (alongside its 15-inch size that's already available with AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series Mobile Processors), the high-octane Lenovo Legion 5P laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 laptop for entry-level gaming, plus the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 and IdeaCentre Gaming 5 desktops. Read full story USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the support organization for the advancement and adoption of USB technology, today announced an updated USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices, Version 2.0 in support of MIDI 2.0 devices. The standard represents an industry-wide effort by the USB-IF, MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA), and Association of Musical Electronics Industry (AMEI) to provide MIDI users with an expanded MIDI environment connected by USB. USB-IF is proud to support the MMA and AMEI by publishing an updated USB Device Class Specification for next-generation MIDI devices, said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF President and COO. USB has been an integral part of the MIDI environment over the past 20 years, and we look forward to seeing innovative new devices that are enabled by this updated specification. Read full story The popular battle royale PlayersUnknown's BattleGround, called PUBG shortly, has managed to sell over 70 million copies across all platforms it is supported on, like PC and consoles. The huge achievement comes after two and a half years after the game was released, marking a huge achievement for battle royale type of games. The PUBG Corporation, makers of the game, decided to celebrate the new milestone with a release of a remastered Sanhok map. The new Sanhok map is redesigned from the ground up and the developer describes it as leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before! . The new map will go live with the season 8 update, which is going live on July 22nd on Steam, and July 30th on consoles and Google Stadia. Read full story Over the past few days, we've heard chatter about a new 12-pin PCIe power connector for graphics cards being introduced, particularly from Chinese language publication FCPowerUp, including a picture of the connector itself. Igor's Lab also did an in-depth technical breakdown of the connector. TechPowerUp has some new information on this from a well placed industry source. The connector is real, and will be introduced with NVIDIA's next-generation Ampere graphics cards. The connector appears to be NVIDIA's brain-child, and not that of any other IP- or trading group, such as the PCI-SIG, Molex or Intel. The connector was designed in response to two market realities - that high-end graphics cards inevitably need two power connectors; and it would be neater for consumers to have a single cable than having to wrestle with two; and that lower-end ( 225 W) graphics cards can make do with one 8-pin or 6-pin connector. The new NVIDIA 12-pin connector has six 12 V and six ground pins. Its designers specify higher quality contacts both on the male and female ends, which can handle higher current than the pins on 8-pin/6-pin PCIe power connectors. Depending on the PSU vendor, the 12-pin connector can even split in the middle into two 6-pin, and could be marketed as 6+6 pin. The point of contact between the two 6-pin halves are kept leveled so they align seamlessly. Read full story Acer America announced the new Nitro XZ2 Series monitors offering gamers smooth and immersive gameplay with AMD Radeon FreeSync, VESA Certified DisplayHDR 400 and up to a fast 1 ms response time with prices starting at $199.99. The series includes the 31.5-inch Nitro XZ322QU and 27-inch Nitro XZ272 supporting up to a speedy 165 Hz refresh rate and the 23.6-inch 144 Hz Nitro XZ242Q. Thanks to Visual Response Boost (VRB), they deliver up to a 1 ms response time, resulting in smoothly rendered images with less noticeable blur in fast moving scenes. Our newest Nitro series monitors combine speed, FreeSync and curved panels to offer fun and exciting gaming at a great value, said Ronald Lau, Acer America director - stationary computing. The fast performance and affordable pricing make the Nitro series ideal for a wide range of gamers, particularly for first-person shooter and racing games where fluid visuals are key. Read full story BIOSTAR has been a late entrant to the custom-design graphics card scene with its recent launch of two Radeon RX 5000 series products under the Extreme Gaming product line. The company expanded it with a pair of GeForce GTX 16-series products, the VN1665XF69 based on GeForce GTX 1660, and the VN1655XF41 based on the GTX 1650. The Extreme Gaming GTX 1660 sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 1785 MHz GPU Boost, and 8 Gbps (GDDR5-effective) memory. It features a dual-fan, dual-slot aluminium fin-stack heatsink. The Extreme Gaming GTX 1650, too, sticks to NVIDIA reference clocks for the SKU - 1665 MHz GPU Boost, and 8 Gbps memory. It uses a simpler aluminium mono-block heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of 70 mm fans. It's likely that both cards will be sold by BIOSTAR at close-to-reference pricing. Seagate, a world leader in data solutions, today announced two new additions to its solid state Nytro portfolio which delivers optimal endurance and quality of service. Nytro 3032 SAS SSD and Nytro 1360 SATA SSD are designed to meet the needs of a wide range of enterprise applications.The next generation of high-capacity SAS SSD from Seagate, Nytro 3032 SAS SSD delivers ultra-fast, reliable, and secure performance. The drive has an SAS 12 Gb/s interface and it also offers dual ports for speeds of up to 2200 MB/s and up to 10 DWPD bringing consistent and easily scalable performance to write-intensive, mixed, and read-intensive enterprise workloads. The Seagate Nytro 3032 SAS SSD delivers up to 15 TB in a 2.5-inch x 15 mm form factor and boosting enterprise storage density to keep up with data growth. Read full story Dell Technologies is exploring a potential spin-off of its 81% equity ownership interest in VMware. Although this exploration is in an early stage, Dell Technologies believes a spin-off could benefit both Dell Technologies and VMware shareholders, team members, customers and partners by simplifying capital structures and creating additional long-term enterprise value. Any potential spin-off would not occur prior to September 2021 and would be intended to qualify as tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Additionally, Dell Technologies continues to evaluate a range of strategic options concerning its ownership interest in VMware, including maintaining its current ownership in the company. The strategic relationship between Dell Technologies and VMware has never been stronger, said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer, Dell Technologies. For more than 20 years, we've innovated for our customers and created substantial growth and value for both companies and our teams. Regardless of the options we are exploring to create additional value, we are accelerating our strategy - which remains unchanged. We are focused on winning in the consolidating markets where we operate and innovating across the Dell Technologies portfolio to create integrated solutions that turn data into insights and action. Read full story Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the Razer Huntsman Mini 60% optical gaming keyboard. This new ultra-compact form factor keyboard is the latest addition to the Huntsman family lineup, known for its industry-leading optical switches that outperform traditional mechanical switches in both speed and response times. The Huntsman Mini will be available in Black and Mercury White finishes as well as in both the clicky purple, and newly improved linear red optical switch variations. The Huntsman Mini answers the growing demand from gamers for a compact, high-performance gaming keyboard. This includes professional Fortnite gamers such as Ceice and Cloakzy, as the ultra-compact form fits perfectly in their limited tournament desk space. With about 60% of the size of a full-sized keyboard, the Huntsman Mini still retains all the essential keys for gaming. Functions normally assigned to dedicated keys on a full-sized keyboard are still present as secondary functions, printed onto the side of the keycaps. Even more functions or macros can be assigned to any key via Razer Hypershift within Razer Synapse 3. Read full story The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the storage industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of the Serial ATA (SATA ) technology, today announced the publication of the SATA Revision 3.5 Specification. Specification 3.5 introduces features that enable increased performance benefits and promote greater integration of SATA devices and products with other industry I/O standards. SATA-IO has a long tradition of participating in the industry and supporting new innovative technology. These new features underscore the versatility of the SATA standard, said Jim Hatfield, SATA-IO president. SATA remains one of the most stable, yet adaptable, interfaces in the industry. We are pleased to be able to enhance SATA's compatibility benefits for our members and the industry by adding features which allow SATA and other I/O standards to coexist in a variety of environments. Read full story In honor of its 15th birthday, Das Keyboard, the leader in high-end mechanical keyboards, today announced the launch of its second Ultimate Typing Championship competition to find the fastest and most talented typists across the globe. The online typing competition will host thousands of talented typists over the age of 13 from around the world to compete for a chance to make history and be crowned the Ultimate Typing Champion. Contestants will race online using the TyprX competitive typing website to record their fastest words-per-minute (WPM) typing speeds. Twenty-five of the fastest typists in the world will be invited to compete in the live-streamed event on August 22nd. In addition to competing for speed, this year's competition will contain unique challenges that will test a variety of typing skills and provide entertainment for viewers of all ages.The Ultimate Typing Championship 2020 will be streamed live in front of thousands of online viewers across the world on Twitch Saturday, August 22nd at 12:00 pm CDT. All top twenty-five contenders will receive a Das Keyboard; the runner up will receive $500, and the winner will receive $5,000 and be crowned the Ultimate Typing Champion. Current sponsors of the event include the keyboard and key switch maker CHERRY MX, and the keyboard and keycap maker GMK, both of which are headquartered in Germany.Read full story Intel just sent out press invites to what is likely an online media event slated for September 2, 2020. The spells nothing other than a one-liner We have something big to share... with the September 2 date. Everyone has a theory as to what this could be, depending on who you ask. The Verge has a valid theory pointing to this being a formal launch of the 11th Gen Core Tiger Lake mobile processors on the basis of several notebook manufacturers slating their Tiger Lake based notebook launches on Fall 2020. We believe this could be a desktop-related unveil, possibly a performance preview or teaser of the company's 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S processor. Why September? Because September 2020 is going to be a busy month for AMD and NVIDIA, with both launching their next-gen consumer graphics architectures, product lines; and more interestingly, AMD rumored to launch its Zen 3 microarchitecture in some shape or form. A Ryzen 4000 Vermeer product launch could trigger Intel to at least preview Rocket Lake-S, as it's the first client-desktop microarchitecture in 5 years to introduce IPC gains on the backs of new Cypress Cove CPU cores that are a 14 nm back-port of Willow Cove. It wouldn't surprise us if Intel shed more light on the performance throughput of its big new Xe graphics processors. In a typical Battle Royale game, players fend for themselves, scour the map for loot, remain in the playable area and strategically plot to become the sole survivor. Mantisco's Hunter's Arena: Legends delivers a fresh approach to gameplay: In addition to their rival Hunters, players must contend with up to 10,000 artificial intelligence (AI) enemies, bringing together into one title the best MMORPG1, MOBA2 and Battle Royale features.Developing a game with up to 60 players and 10,000 AI enemies was a massive technical undertaking. Mantisco needed to deliver seamless gameplay with exciting battles that keep players in the middle of the action. Intel helped Mantisco optimize gameplay through Intel Xeon servers and 10th Gen Intel Core CPU utilization that allow battles to take place simultaneously across the map. Using Intel VTune Profiler, which provides detailed profile data to improve CPU and GPU computing-intensive tasks and CPU threading performance, Mantisco created continuous and explosive moments of conflict among human and AI opponents alike through a dynamic monster respawn system. Read full story Montech has recently released upgraded versions of its original Gamma Series of power supplies which were first released in 2018. The new Gamma II Series is available in 550 W, 650 W, and 750 W sizes and all feature a non-modular design with premium flat black cables. The series comes with motherboard power, dual CPU power, quad 6+2 pin PCIe cables (dual on 550 W), 8 SATA power connectors, tri MOLEX connectors, and an FDD connector. The Gamma II Series of power supplies are all rated at 80 Plus Gold efficiency and feature Japanese 105°C/221°F Capacitors, along with 120 mm adjustable RPM silent fans.The Gamma II Series 80 PLUS Gold PSUs come with a 5-year warranty and are already available at Amazon and Newegg in the US, and worldwide at all Montech retailers. Pricing for the 550 W will be 65.99 USD, 72.99 USD for the 650 W model, and 79.99 USD for the 750 W model in North America. Read full story Audeze, the leading premium audiophile headphone manufacturer, today announces the launch of their new Penrose wireless headset aimed at console and PC gamers. Extending Audeze's family of gaming headphones that includes the high-end LCD-GX and the Mobius 3D Surround Sound PC gaming headset, the Penrose is designed with Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Sony's PlayStation 5 in mind. Penrose is equipped with Audeze's 100 mm planar magnetic drivers, a broadcast quality microphone for enhanced chat and streaming, and a 2.4 GHz low-latency lossless wireless connection, so gamers can experience the best in audio quality and wireless functionality. To commemorate this announcement, the Audeze Penrose is now available to pre-order for the limited promotional price of 249 GBP (~315 USD). Pre-order details can be found here with shipments expected in early September. Read full story Montech have recently revealed their new Beta Series 80 Plus Bronze power supplies, the new PSUs are available in 550 W and 650 W capacities. The series features a non-modular design and includes motherboard power, CPU power, dual 6+2 pin PCIe cables, 6 SATA power connectors, and dual MOLEX connectors. The Beta Series uses 105°C/221°F rated Japanese main capacitors and feature a high amperage +12v Single Rail. The power supplies are all rated at 80 Plus Bronze efficiency and support continuous output at +40°C in addition to being fully compliant with Intel's ATX 12 Volt 2.31 and EPS 12 V 2.92 standards. Beta Series PSUs come with a 3-year warranty and are already available at Amazon and Newegg in the US, and worldwide at all Montech retailers. Pricing for the 550 W will be 49.99 USD and 56.99 USD for the 650 W model in North America. Read full story CORSAIR s take on the second-screen experience for the PC comes in the form of the iCUE NEXUS. It is a color LCD touchscreen panel with various installation options, including on keyboards, to allow for customized monitoring and control over CORSAIR products and other system components via their iCUE software program. The Patriot Viper V380 is a USB gaming headset with massive 53-millimeter speaker drivers, a detachable omnidirectional microphone, 7.1 virtual surround sound support, and an interesting RGB lighting system. It will set you back $75, which fair for such a solid USB gaming headset. 5G has been a trending topic in the recent times because of the big technological breakthrough and all the solutions that its major features will make a reality: Low latency, bigger bandwidth with higher frequency, and overall faster real-time connection.With those features 5G will connect virtually everyone and everything together in a fast and reliable network through the air while protecting privacy and security issues, that will mean the era of real IoT: Smart cities and smart transportations; remote medical care and wirelessly connected Industrial devices, and high-quality video streaming, to say the least. Read full story TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) devices, launches the F4-422 4-bay NAS with 10 GbE networking as part of the 10G series product line. The F4-422 is equipped with a powerful Intel Celeron quad-core 1.50 GHz processor, 4 GB of DDR3 memory, two Gigabit ports, a high-speed 10GbE port, and two USB3.0 Host ports.The TerraMaster F4-422 is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses looking for a fast and reliable NAS solution with superb data security and protection features. The F4-422 features AES NI hardware encryption along with multiple layers of data security and advanced data protection. The F4-422 offers large-scale user access, supporting concurrent access for up to 500 users. It also makes it easy to share storage space across multiple users and be able to manage access rights according to users, user groups, and folders. Furthermore, the F4-422 supports multiple RAID modes and SSD acceleration technology. Read full story Antec Inc., leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, are announcing the new Striker Phantom Gaming Edition, at MSRP 249.99 USD. It will be available on Amazon Newegg this week. As the name reveals, Antec partnered up with ASRock, who own the Phantom Gaming Brand.Striker will feature a Phantom Gaming Alliance compliant style that matches the design with the motherboard and graphics card of ASRock Phantom Gaming . The logo of Phantom Gaming will be decorated on both sides of the side panels. Read full story Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of PC components and peripherals, offering performance at a reasonable price. Sharkoon is expanding further into the field of ultra-light gaming mice and introduces the entry-level Light² 100. With its characteristic lightweight, an ultra-flexible cable and mouse feet made of 100 percent PTFE, this is another model which puts emphasis on smooth and comfortable use. In addition, visual highlights are provided by the RGB illumination, which can be configured via the extensive gaming software. Read full story According to the Bloomberg report, Sony has reportedly doubled Playstation 5 orders and plans to ship 10 million units this fiscal year. Originally, Sony wanted to ship 5-6 million units between November of this year and March 31st of 2021. However, Sony is seeing a very high demand for its next-generation console and it had to double the production orders. Being manufactured in Kisarazu, Japan, the company can assemble two Playstation 4 consoles every minute, which is pretty impressive and gives hope that Sony can satisfy the demand for the new console. When the manufacturing costs of the console are broken down into parts, memory is making for more than half of it. The super-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD and GDDR6 memory cost about $250 combined. Reports are suggesting that the entire console costs an amazing $450 to manufacture. As we approach the launch of the Intel's Ice Lake-SP Xeon processors, which will be the company's first 10 nm product for servers, we find more details on the ways CPU operates and today's discovery is an interesting one. In the latest patch submitted to Linux kernel by Intel's engineers, we find out that Intel Ice Lake Xeons have a slower frequency ramp up, meaning that there could be some latency added. However, the engineers have patched this and it should perform as expected. The patch is described as the following: On ICX platform, the CPU frequency will slowly ramp up when woken up from C-states deeper than/equals to C1E. Although this feature does save energy in many cases this might also cause unexpected result. For example, workload might get unstable performance due to the uncertainty of CPU frequency. Besides, the CPU frequency might not be locked to specific level when the CPU utilization is low. Super Bomberman R was released in March 2017 for the Nintendo Switch with support for other consoles coming the next year, the game received mixed to positive reviews but retained a decent player base over the last few years. Konami has recently unveiled plans to revitalize the series with the new Super Bomberman R Online coming first to Google Stadia. The game is set to release in Fall 2020 on Google Stadia with other platforms coming later, with pricing yet to be confirmed.Google Stadia/KonamiDrop bombs and collect power-ups to blast your way through SUPER BOMBERMAN R ONLINE! You can compete against up to 64 players from around the world in this explosive survival battle. With the new BATTLE 64 mode, move from one area to another and blast away your rivals in an epic online survival battle! Fight your way to the end and outlast all other players to be BOMBER ONE! Read full story Pico Interactive has recently announced two new versions of its G2 4K headset. The original Pico G2 4K was released in May 2019 as a competitor to the recently discontinued Oculus Go, the two headsets were quite similar both featuring only three degree of freedom (3DoF) head tracking and a single 3DoF controller however the Pico G2 4K did feature a slightly higher resolution screen.The two new headsets the Pico G2 4K S and Pico G2 4K Enterprise offer incremental upgrades to the original headset, the Pico G2 4K S ups the internal storage to 128 GB from 32 GB and boosts the battery capacity by 20% which should equate to roughly 2 to 5 hours more battery life according to Pico. The Pico G2 4K Enterprise also features the aforementioned storage increase and battery boost but also includes a front 16 MP RGB camera. The Pico G2 4K S is now available through enterprise channels for 375 USD while the Pico G2 4K Enterprise will be coming in Q3 2020 for 450 USD. Japanese monitor maker iiyama has recently announced the GB3466WQSU Red Eagle gaming monitor, this monitor is quite similar to the GB3461WQSU which was released by iiyama a few months ago. The GB3466WQSU is a high-end gaming monitor with almost all the features you could want, a 3440x1440 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate with FreeSync Premium Pro support, VA panel, and 1500R curve. The VA panel comes with a typical brightness of 400 cd/m² scoring it HDR400 certification along with a typical static contrast of 3000:1.The included monitor allows for height (110 mm), and tilt (-5°, +20°) adjustment or can be mounted to any VESA compatible stand using the 100 x 100 mm mount. The monitor features x2 HDMI and x2 DisplayPort but you will want to use DisplayPort as HDMI caps out at 100Hz, a basic dual port USB 3.0 hub is also included. The monitor features dual 3 W speakers and a 3.5 mm jack for all your audio needs. The monitor measures 808 mm x 441.5 mm x 256 mm and comes in at 10.9 kg, the monitor is currently available to pre-order for 429.99 GBP (~540 USD) with delivery expected July 24th. The iCUE NEXUS was no doubt the bigger launch from CORSAIR yesterday, so much so that we nearly missed another product launched by the company. The new MM150 adds to CORSAIR's peripherals and accessories lineup, offering an extremely thin (0.5 mm) tear-resistant polycarbonate surface for those preferring such low profile mouse pads. It can be classified as a medium size pad, measuring in at 350 x 260 mm, and has an anti-skid silicone base to keep it in place during gaming. There is also a large CORSAIR logo as part of the forefront aesthetic, and the MM150 can be purchased for $15 from the CORSAIR webstore. OWC, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world's most respected providers of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits announces that their new Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock is available to order now and will begin shipping the week of July 27th. Smartphone-sized with no AC adapter needed, the mini Dock is the ultimate tool for on-the-go and desktop use.The OWC Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock harnesses the full potential of your Mac or PC's Thunderbolt 3 port, with fast data transfers, dual 4K display support, and small device charging power creating a hub of powerful connections. Built by the world's largest producer of Thunderbolt devices, OWC follows the highest standards in engineering and manufacturing, so you can use the Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock with full confidence in its compatibility and precision performance. Read full story The new UD70 PCIe Gen 3x4 is an all-around performer that's perfect for DIY system builders, casual gamers and video editors, and simply those who are looking to upgrade their PC. With 3D QLC NAND storage technology, the UD70 incorporates a much higher memory cell density, allowing for greater storage capacity on a smaller footprint - up to 2 TB. Plus, NVMe 1.3 support, read speeds up to 3,400 MB/s, and write speeds up to 3,000 MB/s make this M.2 2280 SSD a force to be reckoned with.The UD70 is specially engineered with a dual self-cooling system that operates via active state power management (ASPM) and autonomous power state transition (APST). In addition, thermal throttling effectively monitors and controls the temperature to prevent sudden speed drops or damage of stored data caused by high temperature. With these advanced mechanisms in place, the UD70 will keep its cool to sustain a safe and optimal level of performance at all times, which translates to a longer and more reliable lifespan. Read full story AMD late-Tuesday released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 20.7.2 beta adds optimization for Death Stranding (up to 8% performance uplift on offer as tested with an RX 5700 XT); F1 2020 (up to 5% better performance in the ultra high preset, as tested with RX 5700 XT); and Hyper Scape Open Beta. The company also fixed a handful issues. To begin with, a display corruption or hang when launching VR applications with Occulus Rift headset has been fixed. A bug with AMD Bug Report Tool that caused list of application to fail to load, has been fixed. Netflix previews on Edge appearing black-screens has been fixed. Wallpaper Engine being detected as a game by Radeon Software has been fixed. Valorant failing to launch from Radeon Software or Gaming tab has been fixed. Hyper Scape experiencing a crash on Windows 7 systems has been fixed. DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.7.2 beta The change log follows.Read full story JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of the widely-anticipated JESD79-5 DDR5 SDRAM standard. The standard addresses demand requirements being driven by intensive cloud and enterprise data center applications, providing developers with twice the performance and much improved power efficiency. JESD79-5 DDR5 is now available for download from the JEDEC website.DDR5 was designed to meet increasing needs for efficient performance in a wide range of applications including client systems and high-performance servers. DDR5 incorporates memory technology that leverages and extends industry know-how and experience developing previous DDR memories. The standard is architected to enable scaling memory performance without degrading channel efficiency at higher speeds, which has been achieved by doubling the burst-length to BL16 and bank-count to 32 from 16. This revolutionary architecture provides better channel efficiency and higher application level performance that will enable the continued evolution of next-generation computing systems. In addition, the DDR5 DIMM has two 40-bit fully independent sub-channels on the same module for efficiency and improved reliability.New features, such as DFE (Decision Feedback Equalization), enable IO speed scalability for higher bandwidth and improved performance. DDR5 supports double the bandwidth as compared to its predecessor, DDR4, and is expected to be launched at 4.8 Gbps (50% higher than DDR4's end of life speed of 3.2 Gbps).Read full story When we set out to design the Xbox Series X, we aspired to build our most powerful console ever powered by next generation innovation and delivering consistent, sustained performance never before seen in a console with no compromises. To achieve this goal, we knew we needed to analyze each component of the system, to push beyond the limitations in traditional console performance and design. It was critical in the design of the Xbox Series X to ensure we had a superior balance of power, speed and performance while ensuring no component would constrain the creative ambition of the world's best creators, empowering them to deliver truly transformative next gen gaming experiences not possible in prior console generations. Read full story 343 Industries today released a new update to its The Master Chief Collection, which includes all FPS Halo Games from Halo Reach through Halo 4 (which, in turn, covered two Xbox console releases in the original Xbox and Xbox 360). The new game, like Halo Reach, Halo: combat Evolved Anniversary, and Halo 2 Anniversary, has been ported to PC with most features one would expect. Performance-wise, the game runs pretty well, with an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti achieving 150+ FPS on 4K and maximum quality settings - which is to be expected considering the games' original September 2007 release, and the fact that like Halo Reach, it hasn't been remastered.It's time to finish the fight (again). In the meantime, check after the break for some 4K screenshots of the game, which still holds up pretty well with a simple resolution increase. Read full story Micron Technology, Inc., today announced a comprehensive enablement program which will provide early access to technical resources, products and ecosystem partners. The Technology Enablement Program will aid in the design, development and qualification of next-generation computing platforms that use DDR5, the most technologically advanced DRAM available. Today's news builds on Micron's January announcement of DDR5 RDIMM samples and brings the industry one step closer to unlocking the value in next-generation, data-centric applications. Companies joining Micron in the DDR5 Technology Enablement Program include Cadence, Montage, Rambus, Renesas and Synopsys. Read full story Today, AMD announced the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processor line-up, with up to 64 cores and unrivaled bandwidth built with enterprise-grade AMD PRO technologies. Designed for professional workstations from OEMs and system integrators, AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processors uniquely offer full spectrum compute capabilities with unmatched core counts for multi-threaded workloads plus high frequency single core performance for lightly threaded workloads. This combination makes AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processors the best choice for artists, architects, engineers and data scientists. AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processors are purpose-built to set the new industry standard for professional workstation compute performance, said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Client business unit. The extreme performance, high core counts and bandwidth of AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors are now available with AMD PRO technology features including seamless manageability and unique built-in data protection. Even the most demanding professional environment is addressed with the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO line-up, from artists and creators developing breathtaking visual effects, to architects and engineers working with large datasets and complex visualizations, all brought to life on the most advanced professional workstation platform in the world. Read full story Today marks a new generation of workstation computing with Lenovo's launch of the ThinkStation P620, adding a first-of-its kind workstation to the tower portfolio. As the first and only professional workstation powered by AMD's brand-new Ryzen Threadripper PRO processor, the new workstation brings together unprecedented levels of power, performance and flexibility in a single socket CPU platform. Today's digital creation environments are packed with ever-scaling projects and increasingly complex workflows. From design and visualization, to rendering and AI, enterprise users require a workstation that can not only keep pace but outperform what was previously possible.The ThinkStation P620, offers unparalleled power and performance, as well as the configurability to meet each customer's unique needs in a way that wasn't possible until now. By leveraging AMD's Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processor, Lenovo is delivering the only 64 core workstation platform - a new industry standard. Threadripper PRO processors also offer clock speeds up to 4.00 GHz, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 bandwidth and 8-channel memory support. In addition to speed and flexibility, Lenovo customers now have unmatched core counts for multi-threaded workloads in a single socket platform - rivaling competing dual socket solutions. Read full story AMD and Google Cloud today announced the beta availability of Confidential Virtual Machines (VMs) for Google Compute Engine powered by 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors, taking advantage of the processors' advanced security features. The first product in the Google Cloud Confidential Computing portfolio, Confidential VMs, enables customers for the first time to encrypt data in-use while it is being processed and not just when at rest and in-transit. Based on the N2D family of VMs for Google Compute Engine, Confidential VMs provide customers high performance processing for the most demanding computational tasks and enable encryption for even the most sensitive data in the cloud while it is being processed. At Google Cloud, we believe the future of cloud computing will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where users can be confident that the confidentiality of their data is always under their control. To help customers in making that transition, we've created Confidential VMs, the first product in our Google Cloud Confidential Computing portfolio, said Vint Cerf, vice president and chief internet evangelist, Google. By using advanced security technology in the AMD EPYC processors, we've created a breakthrough technology that allows customers to encrypt their data in the cloud while it's being processed and unlock computing scenarios that had previously not been possible. Read full story Deepcool is expanding its all-in-one liquid cooler portfolio with the Gamer Storm Castle 280EX. It bridges the gap between their 240 mm and 360 mm options while featuring Deepcool s Anti-leak technology, tasteful ARGB lighting, and even a replaceable or rotatable center logo. The MonsterLabo The First is a sleek, compact chassis that is designed for passive operation, while still letting you use decent hardware. With broad compatibility for motherboards and graphics cards, this may well be the first time you can utilize a high-end GPU for absolutely silent gaming. CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the launch of the versatile CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS Companion Touch Screen, a new accessory that puts the power of CORSAIR iCUE software at your fingertips - literally. Attaching to compatible keyboards such as the CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 or K95 RGB PLATINUM XT, or connecting directly to your PC via USB, the iCUE NEXUS delivers convenient access to iCUE's powerful features, such as real-time system monitoring and programmable macros. With the ability to program more than 200 screens, each displaying up to six virtual buttons using custom drag-and-drop graphics, the iCUE NEXUS also adds an extra layer of personalization to any PC enthusiast's setup.The iCUE NEXUS functions as an interactive heads-up display for your PC, leveraging the wide-ranging capabilities of iCUE software. Keep an eye on your system's vitals with real-time system monitoring data from the CPU, GPU, and iCUE-compatible devices, including temperatures, frequencies, fan speeds, and more. Any actions programmable in iCUE can be mapped to one of the iCUE NEXUS' virtual buttons, letting you perform a myriad of commands with just a touch, from launching a game or app to executing complex macros in-game. Read full story Intel issued a product change notification (PCH) announcing the discontinuation of its 9th Gen Core X series Skylake-X HEDT processors in the LGA2066 package; in addition to at least 10 Xeon W-2000 series workstation processors that are based on a similar IP. Discontinuation involves several steps, the first of which is the discontinuation announcement, which is dated July 9, 2020. The last orders for these chips will be taken on January 22, 2021, which are non-cancellable and non-returnable (for distributors, end-users are still protected by product warranties and consumer laws regardless of when they buy the processor). The last orders ship before July 9, 2021. Kingston Technology Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced Phison (TPEx:8299) will sell its shares in Kingston Solutions, Inc. (KSI), a joint venture with Kingston Technology Corporation, to Kingston. The transaction will enable Kingston to become the majority shareholder of KSI. Phison will continue to focus on technology and R and, give Kingston the best-in-class support and service. In 2010, Phison and Kingston formed KSI as a joint venture to accelerate the adoption of eMMC (Embedded Multi-Media Card) solutions by easing the design-in effort and speeding up the product design cycle. This allowed both companies to bring their products to market faster. KSI leveraged Phison's expertise in controller technology with Kingston's operational proficiency in memory solutions to quickly become a market leader in the embedded industry. Read full story HP today announced the S750 line of client-segment SSDs in the 2.5-inch form-factor that take advantage of the SATA 6 Gbps interface. Available in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, the drives combine an SMI-sourced controller with 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory. All three variants are rated to offer sequential transfer speeds of up to 560 MB/s reads, with up to 520 MB/s writes. The 256 GB variant offers random access performance of up to 55,000/79,000 IOPS (reads/writes); the 512 GB variant up to 90,000/89,000 IOPS, and the 1 TB variant up to 74,000/80,000 IOPS. Endurance of the three variants are rated at 160 TBW, 320 TBW, and 650 TBW, respectively. The company didn't reveal pricing as it vastly varies between regions. Analog Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADI) and Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXIM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which ADI will acquire Maxim in an all stock transaction that values the combined enterprise at over $68 billion. The transaction, which was unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, will strengthen ADI as an analog semiconductor leader with increased breadth and scale across multiple attractive end markets.Under the terms of the agreement, Maxim stockholders will receive 0.630 of a share of ADI common stock for each share of Maxim common stock they hold at the closing of the transaction. Upon closing, current ADI stockholders will own approximately 69 percent of the combined company, while Maxim stockholders will own approximately 31 percent. The transaction is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Read full story ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with PB Tech to distribute ADATA industrial-grade products in the New Zealand market. We are thrilled to be joining forces with PB Tech and putting our complementary strengths to work, said Danny Wang, Sales Director at ADATA. With PB Tech's leading position in computing and IT retail and ADATA's full range of products and solutions, this is a complementary partnership that will greatly expand the presence of both parties in New Zealand. Read full story GIGABYTE today introduced the GA-IMB410TN, a Thin Mini-ITX Socket LGA1200 motherboard based on the Intel H410 chipset. Designed for compact desktops and all-in-one desktops, the IMB410TN is designed to draw power from a 2-pin external DC power source. It supports processors with TDP of up to 65 W (and perhaps power limited to 65 W). The processor is wired to a pair of DDR4 SODIMM slots for up to 64 GB of dual-channel memory; and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. Storage connectivity includes an M.2-2280 slot, and two SATA 6 Gbps port. Other slots include an mPCIe 3.0 x1, an mSATA 6 Gb/s, and an M.2 E-key slot for WLAN cards. Other connectivity relevant to the board's AIO desktop credentials include LVDS connectors, GPIO, and a suite of jumpers, sensors, and headers meant for all-in ones. Networking is care of two 1 GbE connections driven by Intel-made controllers, and a 6-channel HD audio solution driven by a Realtek ALC887 codec. The company didn't reveal pricing. According to the report from The Wall Street Journal, we have obtained information that SoftBank, owner of Arm Holdings, is considering a future of Arm Holdings without SoftBank's ownership. The report is indicating that SoftBank can either sell its subsidiary or make it go to public with Initial Public Offering (IPO). If we recall, SoftBank has purchased Arm Holdings in 2016 for 32 billion USD, and the company is potentially worth much more today. Arm Holdings was established as a joint between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.), and VLSI Technology. The news of SoftBank selling Arm Holdings is coming just after Apple decided to make a Mac based on Arm ISA.The report from WSJ says that the market interest for such acquisition is unknown, so there is a big possibility that SoftBank will ultimately do nothing and just keep the company. My speculations could be that Apple may have an interest in the company since it is using its royalties and intellectual property. If such a thing happens Apple would be forced to sign a deal by antitrust regulators that force the company to continue offering to license the ISA. After all, Apple was one of the founding members of the joint venture. The possibility of that is of course very low. If another option such as IPO happens, the company would still be in ownership of SoftBank, it would just go to the public trading market. Today, Synology Inc. announced the launch of a new data center in Seattle for its cloud backup service, Synology C2. The data center is the second location to offer C2 services, with the first location in Frankfurt, Germany. The expansion extends the reach of Synology C2 service to markets in America and Asia, offering new subscribers the choice of where to host their data. Augmenting on-premises data security with cloud-based backup is a growing trend among personal and business users alike. The new data center in Seattle allows us to provide a more efficient and localized experience to customers in the Americas and Asia, said Hewitt Lee, Director of Synology Product Management Group. Read full story Thermaltake introduced the Smart BM2 line of mainstream, semi-modular power supplies. Available in mid-range capacities of 450 W (model: PS-SPD-0450MNFABx-1), 550 W (PS-SPD-0550MNFABx-1), 650 W (PS-SPD-0650MNFABx), and 750 W (PS-SPD-0750MNFABx), these PSUs feature single +12 V rail designs with 80 Plus Bronze efficiency, DC-to-DC switching, APFC, Japanese main capacitors, and most common electrical protections, against over/under-voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit. As semi-modular PSUs, the Smart BM2 comes with fixed 24-pin ATX, fixed 8-pin EPS, and an additional 4+4 pin EPS fixed connector, on all four models. The 450 W and 550 W models offer two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, while the 650 W and 750 W models offer four. The 450 W, 550 W, and 650 W models offer six SATA power connectors, while the 750 W model tops it up with nine. All models offer four Molex and a Berg. Black, flat cables are offered on all models, including for the fixed connectors. A 140 mm fan is used to cool the PSU, on all four models. Thermaltake is backing the Smart BM2 series with 5-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing. The Intel Core i5-10600K is currently retailing for $289.99 and $299.99 respectively on Amazon and Newegg which is well above Intel's suggested MSRP of just $262. This has created a bizarre situation where it is currently better value to purchase the CPU from Silicon Lottery where it has been verified to overclock to a set amount. Silicon Lottery sells multiple binned variants of the chip ranging from 4.7 GHz - 5.1 GHz max all-core overclock with prices starting at $289.99 going all the way up to $419.99. The $299.99 option which is guaranteed to overclock to 4.9 GHz on all 6 cores, and 5.0 GHz on up to 2 cores is arguably the best value option for the chip currently.This guaranteed all-core overclock of 4.9 GHz provides a significant performance boost over the stock base frequency of 4.1 GHz, which equates to roughly 1% - 3% gaming performance boost which while not massive still equates to a few extra FPS. If considering one of these CPUs keep in mind the need for reasonable aftermarket cooling to ensure these chips stay cool such as the Noctua NH-U12S we used in our review. GALAX announced plans to launch its motherboard product line in the North American market. The company will dip its toes in the market with entry-level and mid-range products, targeting both Intel Socket LGA1200 and AMD Socket AM4. For both sockets, GALAX appears to be using entry/mainstream chipsets. The LGA1200 product line consists of models based on the Intel H410 and B460 chipsets, while the AM4 line is based on the B550 chipset as AMD is yet to launch its entry-level A520 chipset. From the looks of it, GALAX's boards are pretty basic, and possibly all sub-$100 segment. The company didn't reveal specifics such as launch dates or pricing. A new rumor suggests that Square Enix is preparing to release a Tomb Raider game bundle, the supposed leak claims that the bundle won't just include the modern games but also classics from the 90s. The package is supposedly set for release on Steam, Stadia, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch, the promotional image also carries an August 27th release date so if these rumors are true an announcement from Square Enix can be expected in the coming weeks. The rumor is backed up by a recent extension to the T.R.U.E. TOMB RAIDER ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE trademark filed by Square Enix in 2018.If true this bundle could contain over 15 Tomb Raider games released during the last 24 years from various consoles. What do you think of the leak and trademark extension, a sign of imminent release, or just hopeful thinking and some Photoshop skills? Intel's 12th Gen Core Alder Lake-S desktop processors in the LGA1700 package could see the desktop debut of Intel's Hybrid Technology that it introduced with the mobile segment Lakefield processor. Analogous to Arm big.LITTLE, Intel Hybrid Technology is a multi-core processor topology that sees the combination of high-performance CPU cores with smaller high-efficiency cores that keep the PC ticking through the vast majority of the time/tasks when the high-performance cores aren't needed and hence power-gated. The high-performance cores are woken up only as needed. Lakefield combines one Sunny Cove high-performance core with four Tremont low-power cores. Alder Lake-S will take this concept further.According to Intel slides leaked to the web by HXL (aka @9550pro), the 10 nm-class Alder Lake-S silicon will physically feature 8 Golden Cove high-performance cores, and 8 Gracemont low-power cores, along with a Gen12 iGPU that comes in three tiers - GT0 (iGPU disabled), GT1 (some execution units disabled), and GT2 (all execution units enabled). In its top trim with 125 W TDP, Alder Lake-S will be a 16-core processor with 8 each of Golden Cove and Gracemont cores enabled. There will be 80 W TDP models with the same 8+8 core configuration, which are probably locked parts. Lastly, there the lower wrungs of the product stack will completely lack small cores, and be 6+0, with only high-performance cores. A recurring theme with all parts is the GT1 trim of the Gen12 iGPU. Read full story Microsoft's upcoming Flight Simulator has already shown users its promise with breathtaking visuals and a revamped simulation experience that will have our inner flight captains stand at attention. The game has now been listed on the Microsoft Store, with a release date set on August 18th - right around the time where some of us will be hiding out from uncomfortably high temperatures. However, Microsoft's content tiering across game editions may not be your cup of tea.The game's Standard Edition will retail for $59.99, and includes 20 planes and 30 airports. Pay $89.99 though, and you get an upgrade to the Deluxe Edition which features five additional aircraft (of which there are two Cessna aircraft included) and five more international airports (including Cairo and O'Hare). At $119.99, the Premium Deluxe Edition will net you a grand total of 30 planes and 40 total airports. This last upgrade will land you, among others, the Heathrow, San Francisco and Frankfurt airports, as well as Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner. This is a strange way to tier Deluxe Editions - it's almost as if they were being separated via DLC packs. Time will tell if this tiering system works. If you haven't yet, check out a 4K trailer after the break. If you want to see the system requirements, we've got you covered. Read full story Another day, another Intel Tiger Lake and Xe graphics leak. This time, it comes courtesy of secret benchmark spotter extraordinaire TUM_APISAK, who spotted an Intel Tiger Lake CPU with integrated graphics on SiSoftware. Tiger Lake will ship with a graphics capability that reaches at least 96 Execution units (which boils down to the referred 768 Shading Units), which corresponds to the graphics prowess available on Intel's (currently discrete) DG1-SDV. The Iris Xe graphics on this benchmark are running at 1.3 GHz, with a 6.3 GB of memory on their elbow. Storage devices with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity are not cheap. The TerraMaster D2 is different, it s only $250, supports two drives and two Thunderbolt 3 ports with a transfer rate of 40 Gb/s. Can it achieve the super-fast speeds of the Thunderbolt 3 interface? In our Core i9-10900 review we re taking a close look at what can be gained from unlocking the power limit of this 65 W processor. Results are impressive: up to 40% faster apps and performance that rivals the Core i9-10900K at much lower pricing, but heat output is increased, too. Cougar today released yet another variation of its DarkBlader line of ATX mid-tower cases that feature an asymmetric trapezioid front panel design, following last week's release of the DarkBlader X5. The X7 is nearly identical to the X5 from last week, including the translucent (frost finish) larger half of the front-panel. Where it differs is the smaller half featuring a vertical ARGB lighting strip at the front intake; and the inclusion of one 120 mm ARGB fan instead of three, pre-installed at the rear vent. The translucent front panel comes in two trims, midnight green and translucent black. These aside, the DarkBlader X7 is identical in every way to not just the DarkBlader X5, but also the original DarkBlader series from 2019. HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, Inc., today announced the release of new and updated speeds and capacities for HyperX Predator DDR4 RGB and HyperX FURY DDR4 RGB memory modules and kits. Featuring memory kits up 256 GB and speeds up to 4600MHz1, the Predator DDR4 RGB and FURY DDR4 RGB memory modules are designed to pass rigorous certification test procedures and are Intel XMP certified and AMD certified Ready for Ryzen.HyperX Predator DDR4 delivers fast frequencies and low latencies with speeds up to 4800MHz1 and latencies from CL12 to CL19. Predator DDR4 utilizes a black aluminium heat spreader and matching black PCB to complement the look of the latest PC builds. Predator memory is available in 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB single modules and in kits of two, four, and eight. Read full story Today at Ubisoft's first digital press conference, Ubisoft Forward, the company announced that Watch Dogs : Legion will launch on October 29, 2020, on, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Stadia and for Windows PC on Epic Games and UPlay. The game will also be available on UPLAY+, Ubisoft's subscription service. Watch Dogs: Legion will also release on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 upon the launch of the consoles. Built with a next-gen concept, Watch Dogs: Legion introduces Play as Anyone, a never-before-seen gameplay innovation created by Ubisoft Toronto**, the studio behind Watch Dogs: Legion. Play as Anyone gives players the entire city of London to choose their roster of resistance members from. Every single person in the open world can be recruited and played, is unique and has a backstory, personality and skillset. Watch Dogs: Legion will also support hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing on Xbox Series X and full ray-tracing support on NVIDIA RTX-equipped PC devices, bringing real-time ray-tracing reflections to the streets of London. Players who purchase Watch Dogs: Legion on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade their game to the next-gen version (Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5) at no additional cost. Read full story Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to introduce the NA346, a 4-LAN fanless network appliance platform designed in a small form factor. This ultra-small desktop network appliance is powered by the Intel Celeron processor N3350 (code name: Apollo Lake) featuring the lowest Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 6 W to meet the specific configurations of low-power requirement. The reliable NA346 is positioned as an entry-level SD-WAN, VPN and security gateway for industrial IoT security applications. The 5G network is foreseeable to transfer data with greater bandwidth, higher speed and boost the edge computing and AIoT application. The cutting-edge NA346 offers two mini-PCIe slots and SIM socket supporting 3G/4G/LTE communications and connectors to 5G modules, said Kiwi Lee, a product manager of Product PM Division at Axiomtek. Space limitation is one of the constraints in today's industrial environment. Axiomtek's ultra-small NA346 can be easily installed in narrow spaces. Featuring fanless operation, this network security appliance is perfect to be used in noise-sensitive environments. Read full story BIOSTAR today announced its Extreme Gaming line of custom-design AMD Radeon RX 5000 series graphics cards. These are the company's first custom-design AMD Radeon products, as the company in the past only sold reference-design RX Vega-series products. The lineup currently includes two products, the VA57T6XM82, based on the Radeon RX 5700 XT, and the VA55T6XF81, based on the RX 5500 XT (4 GB). Both cards appear to use AMD reference-design PCBs paired with custom-design cooling solutions. The RX 5700 XT card uses a large triple-fan aluminium fin-stack cooling solution that's slightly thicker than 2 slots. The RX 5500 XT card uses a more compact twin-fan, double-slot cooling solution. The BIOSTAR Extreme Gaming RX 5700 XT sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 1755 MHz boost, while the RX 5500 XT does 1717 MHz MHz. The company didn't reveal pricing. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units in the second quarter of 2020, a 2.8% increase from the second quarter of 2019, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. After a significant decline in the first quarter of the year due to COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions, the PC market returned to growth as vendors restocked their channels and mobile PC demand increased. The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA, said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels. Read full story ID-COOLING, a cooling solution provider focusing on thermal dissipation and fan technology research and production for over 10 years, announced ICEFLOW 240 ARGB AIO water cooler, featuring a brand new pump on radiator design and newly developed ICEFAN 240 mm. ICEFLOW 240 is equipped with a brand new pump which is built into the side of the radiator. With flow rate reaching up to 240 l/h, lift range 1.8 m H2O, the coolant circulates quickly to help moving the heat from CPU to radiator. Power connector is 3-pin with a 3-pin to Molex adapter to help ensure 12 V constant input to ensure maximum cooling performance.The newly developed ICEFAN 240 fan features two fan blades in one frame. Two fan blades shares one PWM input and one ARGB input cables. Fan speed is PWM controlled from 900 to 2000RPM, pushing max. airflow of 56.5CFM each. Rubber dampeners on fan frame are provided to absorb vibration to lower operation noise. Read full story A sealed copy of the original Super Mario Bros. has sold at auction for $114,000 making it the most expensive video game ever sold. The record had previously been held by the same NES game which sold for $100,150 early last year. This version of the game dates back to mid-1987 and still features the original cardboard hang tab underneath the shrink wrap. This makes it one of the few remaining early copies in such a pristine condition with a high Wata Games certified rating of 9.4/10. This was the highest-quality version of the game ever sold by the company, where previously lower quality versions of the game such as a 8.0/10 selling for $40,200. SilverStone today introduced the ET-MG line of upper-mid range PSUs. Available in 500 W (ET-500MG) and 600 W (ET-600MG) variants, these PSUs offer full modular cabling, with cables for a premium single-GPU gaming PC build. Under the hood, the ET-MG series features a single +12 V rail design with 80 Plus Gold efficiency, 100% Japanese capacitors, and most common electric protections (against over/under-voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit). Interestingly, both models offer two 4+4-pin EPS connectors; and two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors. While the 600 W model offers eight SATA power connectors, the 500 W model offers four. Both PSUs use a 135 mm fan that offers 18 dBA noise output under typical load. Both include flat black modular cables. The company didn't reveal pricing. QNAP Systems Inc, today launched its first desktop QuTS hero NAS series - the TS-hx86. Available in the 6-bay TS-h686 and 8-bay TS-h886, the TS-hx86 series provides a robust yet affordable NAS solution for high-end businesses. Featuring Intel Xeon D-1600 series processors, 2.5 GbE connectivity, M.2 NVMe Gen 3 x4 SSD slots, PCIe expandability, and supporting up to 128 GB server-grade DDR4 ECC memory, the TS-hx86 series also runs the dependable ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system that delivers business-critical features, including data integrity, inline data deduplication and compression, snapshots, and real-time SnapSync, and more. Our rackmount QuTS hero NAS systems have arrived to high acclaim, and now we are rolling out desktop form factor models to cater to small organizations that lack sufficient space for on-premises servers said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP, adding the TS-hx86 is perfect for these organizations to fulfill workgroup file sharing with ZFS advantages, to tackle Big Data storage challenges, and provide exceptional IO performance and seamless cross-team collaboration. Read full story Our country is like this grenade… you must clutch our people nice and tight or we all go boom. - Antón Castillo. Today during Ubisoft Forward, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 6 is currently in development and will release February 18, 2021 on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia and the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store on Windows PC, as well as on UPLAY+, the Ubisoft subscription service. With performances from renowned actor and Emmy Award Nominee Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul, The Boys, The Mandalorian) joined by Anthony Gonzalez (Coco), a score created by film and television composer Pedro Bromfman (Narcos), and an opening sequence directed by Emmy Award winner Patrick Clair (Westworld, True Detective), Far Cry 6 brings in Hollywood-calibre talent to bolster the narrative experience. Read full story Today, during the Ubisoft Forward digital conference, Ubisoft announced that the next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, will release worldwide November 17, 2020, on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store on Windows PC, as well as on UPLAY+, the Ubisoft subscription service and Stadia.Assassin's Creed Valhalla will also release on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 upon the launch of the consoles. Players who purchase Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade their game to the next-gen version (Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5) at no additional cost. Brand-new gameplay shown at the digital conference illustrates new features that players can enjoy, including dual-wielding, raiding, assaults and open world activities. Raids will be more action-packed and brutal than anything Assassin's Creed has seen before, with players able to take advantage of a new visceral combat system that lets players bash, dismember and decapitate foes. Eivor will be able to dual-wield axes, swords and even shields against the greatest variety of enemy types ever seen in an Assassin's Creed. Additionally, the return of the Hidden Blade allows Eivor to assassinate targets with deadly precision. Read full story AMD's 3rd generation EPYC line of enterprise processors that leverage the Zen 3 microarchitecture, could innovate in two directions - towards increasing performance by doing away with the CCX (compute complex) multi-core topology; and taking advantage of a newer/refined 7 nm-class node to increase clock-speeds. Igor's Lab decoded as many as three OPNs of the upcoming 3rd gen EPYC series, including a 64-core/128-thread part that ships with frequency of 3.00 GHz. The top 2nd gen EPYC 64-core part, the 7662, ships with 2.00 GHz base frequency and 3.30 GHz boost; and 225 W TDP. AMD is expected to unveil its Zen 3 microarchitecture within 2020. With its GeForce RTX 30-series Ampere graphics cards on the horizon, NVIDIA has reportedly taken the first steps toward discontinuing popular SKUs in its current RTX 20-series graphics cards. Chinese publication ITHome reports that several premium RTX 20-series SKUs, which include the RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 Super, and the RTX 2080 Ti, are on the chopping block, meaning that NVIDIA partners are placing the last orders with upstream suppliers for parts that make up their graphics cards based on these GPUs.It is a slow process toward product discontinuation from this point, which usually takes 6-9 months, as the market is left to soak up leftover inventory. Another juicy bit of information from the ITHome report is NVIDIA allegedly guiding its partners to increase prices of its current-gen high-end graphics cards in response to a renewal in interest in crypto-currency, which could drive up demand for graphics cards. NVIDIA is expected to announce its GeForce RTX 30-series on September 17, 2020. HKEPC's retail market scouts discovered that some AMD Ryzen 5 3600 desktop processors are shipping in paperboard boxes meant for the company's Ryzen 3000G series Picasso desktop APUs. Depending on factors such as iGPU, or the size of the included cooling solution, AMD uses common box sizes among various processor models. The largest cube-shaped boxes hold SKUs with the largest Wraith Prism RGB coolers, a slightly smaller, through still cube-shaped box is meant for SKUs with the Wraith Spire. Smaller cuboid boxes are meant for SKUs that either have the smaller Wraith Stealth coolers, or completely exclude a cooling solution. Much of the SKU differentiation comes from a prominent brand extension (3/5/7/9) motif on the front-face, besides the top label that lists out the model name, OPN, serial number, and doubles up as a security seal. Boxes for the company's APUs (processors with integrated graphics), however, have a prominent processor with AMD Radeon graphics chrome insert on the front- and top faces. The 3600 shipping in such a box could confuse some buyers, particularly those shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, as they'd expect an iGPU where none exists. It's only the SKU sticker on the top-face that has the cautionary note discrete graphics required. Other retail boxes (meant for non-APU products) have this note prominently printed on the box. Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Cooling, Gaming Gear, and Enthusiast Memory solutions, introduces the M900 XXL RGB Mouse Pad, a full desk surface mouse pad featuring 16.8milliontrue RGB color illumination along with seven dynamic lighting effects. This mouse pad has a surface size of 1600 mm in length and 800 mm in width, which provides limitless space and unrestricted movement for your keyboard and mouse to glide through during gameplay. The 4 mm thickness of this mouse pad also ensures maximum comfort and is capable of smoothing out uneven surfaces that users may encounter. The weave design provides a smooth but semi-coarse texture that delivers low friction, high consistent accuracy, and responsive tracking fit for both laser and optical mice. This long-lasting mouse pad is iTAKE engine software and TT RGB Plus compatible; users can customize, control, and sync lighting effects via the Thermaltake iTAKE engine software that connects all your Thermaltake Gaming Peripherals and TT RGB PLUS compatible products without a hassle. Read full story ASUS today introduced the ROG Strix XG17AHP, a variant of the ROG Strix XG17AHPE 17.3-inch portable gaming monitor the company launched in January. The new XG17AHP includes an innovative new tripod stand. The feet of the stand fold outwards from the main stock, which is telescopic, and can extend in height. This lets you orient the display like a conventional desktop monitor, and not just like an iPad with its cover folded into a prism-like shape. The magnetic smart cover is still included in the package, so you even have that option. These aside, the ROG Strix XG17AHP is identical to the ROG Strix XG17AHPE from January. It is a 17.3-inch 16:9 IPS display with Full HD resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, features VESA Adaptive Sync, and a non-glare surface. Since it's meant to be a portable gaming monitor that you pair with your gaming notebook, it packs a 7,800 mAh battery that can provide up to 3 hours of use on a full charge. A USB-C connector is used both for recharging as well as DisplayPort passthrough input; while the monitor also features a micro-HDMI input (cables included that convert this to a standard HDMI). A premium ESS Sabre DAC converts digital audio from the display inputs to high-quality audio for the display's internal speakers, or a 3.5 mm jack. ASUS also includes a pouch that lets you carry the display around. By itself, the display weighs about 1.06 kg (1.76 kg with the tripod stand). Update Jul 13th: ASUS revealed that the XG17AHP is priced at USD $599. I hope AVX512 dies a painful death, and that Intel starts fixing real problems instead of trying to create magic instructions to then create benchmarks that they can look good on. These were the words of Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds in a mailing list, expressing his displeasure over Alder Lake lacking AVX-512. Torvalds also cautioned against placing too much weightage on floating-point performance benchmarks, particularly those that take advantage of exotic new instruction sets that have a fragmented and varied implementation across product lines. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: in the heyday of x86, when Intel was laughing all the way to the bank and killing all their competition, absolutely everybody else did better than Intel on FP loads. Intel's FP performance sucked (relatively speaking), and it matter not one iota. Because absolutely nobody cares outside of benchmarks. Torvalds believes AVX2 is more than enough thanks to its proliferation, but advocated that processor manufacturers design better FPUs for their core designs so they don't have to rely on instruction set-level optimization to eke out performance. Read full story Overclocking feats and benchmarks of the upcoming Ryzen 7 4700G Renoir desktop APU are getting more frequent, which is an indication that we're moving closer to its launch. Chinese language publication ITCooker put their 4700G engineering sample through a bit of manual overclocking to 4.65 GHz, up from the processor's alleged 3.60 GHz base frequency, resulting in a Cinebench R15 score of 217 points in the single-threaded test, and 2306 points in the multi-threaded test. At 4.54 GHz, the same setup goes on to score 5336 points in Cinebench R20. The processor is paired with 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4-4266 MHz memory, and a 240 mm AIO CLC.

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