Phuncz – SFF.Network

Silverstone’s Passive SFX-L PSU launched !

After our hands-on with a prototype at Computex 2017 almost exactly one year ago, the long awaited NJ450-SXL passively cooled SFX-L PSU from Silverstone is finally ready for its debut ! Silverstone claims 24/7 continuous running @ 40°C ambient on the NJ450-SXL, which they usually qualifies its actively-cooled PSUs for. A beefy aluminium heat-dissipating housing envelops the chassis to allow heat wicking away from some of the more heat-producing components. To top this off, more premium quality components have been selected to maintain the SX800-LTI’s 80 PLUS Titanium rating on this passively cooled power supply as well. The fully modular …

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Samsung releases 970 EVO and PRO M.2 NVMe SSDs

Today Samsung revealed the new iteration of their well known and top performing PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD lineup, with the 970 series continuing to claim top performance once again. As with the 960 lineup, the new sticks of awesome come in a PRO and EVO variant, once again differentiating in 2-bit and 3-bit MLC flash memory. This results in slightly better theoretical performance for the PRO, although reviews stressing these drives to their limits often reveals more than those single digit percentages say. The larger difference is in double the write endurance for the PRO vs the EVO model, making …

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ASRock steps into Graphics Cards !

Rumored for about a week, though this seems to make it official ! Let’s hope this means awesome ITX-sized GPUs and even better price/performance DeskMini gaming PCs ! Discuss on our forum.

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Silverstone Starts Shipping Flex ATX 350W Power Supply

Almost a year after unveiling at Computex 2017, Silverstone is now ready to supply the market with it’s first commercial Flex ATX form factor PSU, the FX350-G. Measuring a decent 350W at 80 PLUS Gold rating efficiency, this will be able to power mainstream gaming or a compact NAS SFF builds with ease. Silverstone likes to show that power supplies don’t need to be large to be powerful by including a power density rating, which it measures at 707W per liter for this PSU. It has been certified to work at 40°C ambient environments and maintain a 350 continuous power …

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Ncore V1 prototype shows efficiently minimalistic mount

Over on HardOCP, Kyle Bennett has gotten his hands on a prototype waterblock from NUDEcnc, run by Arek Tobiszewski. Unlike most waterblocks this tiny block mounts only on delidded Intel socket 115x boards by basically replacing the heatspreader as a part of the design. This allows the waterblock to make a direct contact with the CPU die meaning a much more efficient cooling. It will be available for crowd funding on Kickstarter on April 1st. Read more here (hardocp.com) Discuss on our forum.

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ASRock reveals the refreshed DeskMini GTX/RX with Z370 chipset !

That tiny but potent Micro-STX system which supports MXM graphic cards up to the Nvidia GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 580, has received a refresh in the form of a new Z370 chipset and some new tweaks, let’s take a look ! The front looks exactly the same, though the aesthetic was already very well done in my opinion. We need to look elsewhere for the changes. Four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports instead of two on the previous version, a very welcome improvement allowing for more flexibility for connecting pheripherals and less dependence on USB hubs. I’d much rather …

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GIGABYTE reveals next-gen 16-core Atom Server ITX board

GIGABYTE Server, the enterprise and embedded branch of Gigabyte’s consumer brand, has released the specifications for its MA10-ST0 motherboard, complete with Intel Atom C3958 SoC (System on a Chip). This is remarkable since this is the first sighting of this SoC, which is a Denverton-family CPU that has only been revealed as a dual-core C3338 with a 1.5 GHz base clock and 2.2 GHz boost clock. So what does this C3958 SoC get you ? A 31W TDP for starters, which the afformentioned 16 cores running at 2.0 GHz and potentially an unknown boost clock and 16MB of L2 cache. …

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Intel Will Integrate Thunderbolt 3 into Future CPUs and Releases Protocol Specs

Out of the blue Intel today annouced plans to integrate Thunderbolt 3 functionality in future Intel CPU silicon, omiting the need for an additional and expensive dedicated chip on the motherboard. This will ofcourse allow to save some board space and power consumption, but this will probably result in much more choice in motherboards that support Thunderbolt 3. Considering the limited choice in TB3-enabled Mini ITX boards, just the one ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac, this is welcome change and might even make Thunderbolt 3 possible on Mini STX. This plan goes hand in hand with Intel releasing the protocol specifications …

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AMD Talks Ryzen: Memory Support, Mini-ITX and Game Performance

Ryzen has had an active post-launch development, in which AMD has supported developers and manufacturers with code, guidelines and microcode updates to further increase performance and support of its hot new CPU platform. Forbes has had an interview with AMD’s Ryzen Product Manager James Prior and Head of Global Technical Marketing Robert Hallock. They discuss game and app optimization needed to make full use of Ryzen’s platform, along with memory performance and compatibility. Here is an excerpt from the article: One of the key issues with Ryzen is memory support, specifically with many people reporting that it’s mainly Samsung B-die …

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AMD Ryzen announced, detailed and available for pre-order TODAY !

Ever since AMD first announced the work that would later be branded as Ryzen, the company has been strategically and masterfully orchestrating a narrative of dramatic change and disruption to the staid status quo of consumer and enthusiast-grade processors. Today, however, AMD has built up this performance into a crescendo, by revealing their top-performing Ryzen AM4 CPUs today – and by divulging additional details regarding the architectural milestones and performance characteristics that can be expected once they land in the hands of customers. Perhaps the biggest highlight, however, is their availability: AMD has announced that the top-performing chips will be available worldwide on …

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Akasa launches Cypher ST, a 1.98L Mini-STX case

Recently, Akasa introduced their first Mini-STX case called the Cypher ST, giving more purchasing options for aspiring SFF enthusiasts looking into the 5″ by 5″ board form factor. The case exhibits many features the other few Mini-STX cases also have, with a the support for VESA mounting, two 2,5″ storage devices and optionally extra USB and serial ports, along with cutouts for external WiFi antennas. It’s designed for tower or desktop orientation, with the included stands and rubber feet. You are also getting a 50mm fan with 10mm thickness and 3-pin connector in the standard package, located on …

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Mini-ITX AM4 board from Biostar unveiled!

Thanks to the tip from our forum member MarcParis, we finally have the specs of the first known mITX board featuring the AM4 socket. As many of you know, this is the socket type that supports the AMD Ryzen CPU line, expected to be fully revealed at the end of February and possibly commercially available not long after. [mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″] But to avoid confusion (you’ll see in a minute), let’s start with their also-revealed microATX board. MicroATX BioStar X370-GT3 It features the top-end AM4 300-series chipset type, the X370, which features USB 3.1 10Gb/s, overclocking, and CrossFire/SLI. The leaked …