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ErYing Delivers a Fantasy SFF Motherboard

Chinese motherboard manufacturer (尔英) ErYing has released a “Fantasy” series motherboard featuring Intel 12th generation Alder Lake CPU’s, except it’s not what you might think. The CPU’s available are mobile variants with a 45W base TDP and soldered to the motherboard. It looks like it can use a standard intel cooler mount however, and might make for some interesting SFF builds. While they offer both ITX and mATX boards, the ITX is the most interesting for SFF. Currently on Chinese retailer JD.com, the board is listed (but not yet available) in 3 CPU variants. Prices and specs are listed below. …

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Quick Test – AMD Resizable Bar vs Nvidia Resizable Bar

Recently, Hardware Unboxed tested the effect of using resizable bar on their Z790 Intel test bench. They discovered that Gigabyte boards show substantial performance improvements in certain games over other brands, when paired with an RTX 4090. Primarily this was in Horizon Zero Dawn. Ultimately, they determined that the Gigabyte boards had resizable bar turned off whereas all other boards had it turned on. I decided to do a quick test with my more modest setup to see if I could replicate this. I used Z690 boards paired with the Intel I9-12900K, to compare a RTX 3080 to Radeon …

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Framework Next Level Event Answers Every Rumor with “Yes”

Framework, a startup laptop company that launched it’s first product in 2021, announced a plethora of products at it’s Next Level event this morning. The basic premise behind the company is that it wants to reduce e-waste by making upgradeable laptops so you only replace the parts you need/want. They also offer a level of customization through their unique USB-C expansion cards and also their standardized components shared across all generations of the laptop. Starting off the presentation, Framework announced the unsurprising and expected Intel 13th gen Raptor Lake mainboards. Unfortunately, prices increased by nearly $100 for the DIY version …

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Hardware Unboxed Discovers Resizable Bar Performance Issues

Steve from Hardware unboxed, seen above pointing out the next set of companies that won’t send him samples after his videos, discovered an interesting issue when setting up his latest Z790 test system. While he was doing so, he found that the Gigabyte boards substantially outperformed other models in Horizon Zero Dawn and Spiderman Remastered. What he discovered was that Gigabyte disables resizable bar by default. All the other manufactures enabled it by default. Steve was testing with a Z790, i9-13900K, and RTX 4090. Even with a performance issue, these games were still going to outpace the …

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Digital Foundry Reviews AYANEO 2 – Faster Than SteamDeck

Digital Foundry has gotten their hands on the AYANEO 2. Powered by the Ryzen 7 6800U, the AYANEO 2 is a Windows OS SteamDeck competitor. It packs double the cores and far more graphics power than Valve’s still awesome handheld. It also has user adjustable power limits. Check out their review below.

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EKWB Launches Monoblock for the ROG Strix X670E-ITX

EKWB has launched a new “MOMENTUM² Monoblock” for the ROG Strix X670E-ITX, encompassing CPU and VRM cooling in one schmick looking unit. Gone are the days of monoblocks covering CPU and chipset, with today’s M.2 stacks sharing heatsinkage with the chipset, the next target of cooling is the VRM section. This is also a boon with modern, uber-thirsty, processors. In this instance, the block connects to the existing VRM heatsink and cools the power delivery section indirectly. This indirect cooling, however, still appears to work well, with EK claiming a greater than 20°C improvement over the stock air cooled VRM …

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Cubeor Vault 2 Mini-ITX Version 1.1 Available for Order

The Cubeor Vault 2 Mini-ITX Version 1.1 case is now available for order. Coming in at 23.4L, the Vault 2 supports a full 360mm AIO, Mini-ITX motherboards, and up to 3.5 slot GPUs depending on configuration. CPU Cooler height for traditional heatsinks is up to 195mm in height, and the case supports SFX and SFX-L PSUs. Of course one can’t forget to mention the beautiful wood paneling on the front and top. Cubeor offers multiple wood color options, as well as the case in both black and white. You can check out the Vault 2 Mini-ITX at …

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TweakTown Reviews Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2230 1TB SSD – Yes, the Super Tiny One

TweakTown’s Jon Coulter has taken a deep dive into the absolutely tiny Sabrent Rocket NVMe 2230 class M.2 drive, and was pleased by what he found. For those that don’t know, Sabrent has risen to become one of the most recommended SSD manufactures today as they usually offer excellent performance coupled with excellent prices. This is in no small part thanks to the Phison based controllers they use in their designs. Phison units are used across the industry and are shared with other SSDs from the likes of Corsair, Inland, MSI, and Gigabyte. Also for those that don’t know, …