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Craft Computing Builds Retro ITX SFF PC

Craft Computing has posted up their latest video on building a retro SFF PC. Normally, this is an incredibly difficult challenge due the lack of an ITX standard during the Windows 98SE era. However, Craft Computing used an Atom powered ITX board to solve that issue. In typical retro computing fashion, a lot of trial and error was required. The resulting PC though is an excellent outside-the-box retro machine complete with PCI bifurcation, external audio, and a GeForce 6200 GPU. Check it out below.

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Rumor: RTX 2060 Returns With 12GB

Anyone else getting deja vu? It appears the rumors of Nvidia bringing back the RTX 2060 are true, at least according what Tom’s Hardware discovered in the latest driver release. Tom’s theorizes that it appears that Nvidia’s plans of selling Turing based crypto mining cards, that have no resale value once they aren’t profitable, didn’t pan out. Shocker. Who would have thought it? Sales plummeted by 60% in Q3, and now Nvidia is sitting on a bunch of 2060 class Turing GPUs. What will they do? Slap some extra VRAM on it and sell it to desperate gamers. Except …

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Sapphire Announces GearBox 500 Thunderbolt 3 PULSE RX 6600XT 8GB eGFX External GPU

Sapphire has announced their newest eGPU: the GearBox 500 Thunderbolt™ 3 PULSE RX 6600XT 8GB eGFX. Sporting a futuristic aluminum sandwich-style case, the eGPU comes packed with a 6600XT, though it can accept a range of GPUs up to an AMD 6700XT, Nvidia 3060 Ti, or Nvidia Quadro P4000. If you don’t want to put a GPU in the case, the internal PCIe slot is rated at PCIe 3.0 x 4, but is physically an X16 length slot. Additionally, the GearBox 500 comes equipped with a 500 watt power supply, gigabit Ethernet port, and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. …

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Noctua introduces NH-L9i low-profile CPU coolers for LGA1700 and NA-FD1 fan duct

With the advent of Intel’s new LGA1700, the old uSFF stalwart cooler, the Noctua NH-L9i, was made unusable to those who want the latest and greatest platform. LGA1700’s mounting hole dimensions are larger at 78mm square versus LGA115X’s 75mm square. Also of note is that the CPU heatspreader on the new platform being 1mm shorter than previous generations – meaning even if the mounting hole pattern hadn’t changed, the contact pressure of existing coolers would likely be incorrect to enable proper thermal transfer. Noctua has just announced that they now have an LGA1700 version of the L9i available for purchase …

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XBOX Series X “Mini Fridge” Pre-Orders Start October 19th

Can a mini-fridge be SFF news? It is based on the Xbox Series X, which is a SFF gaming device. Screw it. Writing it anyway… Microsoft has announced that you can pre-order the Xbox Series X “Mini Fridge” starting October 19th. The SFF fridge holds up to 12 cans of your preferred beverage, and will start to arrive at retailers in December 2021. US and Canadian small form factor fridge fanatics can pre-order their XBOX Mini Fridge from Target, while European customers will need to use GAME. The price is $99 US. You can follow this link to Microsoft’s XBOX …

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TLDR NEWS

News…NOW! Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor of Sinclair computers, has passed away at the age of 81. The Sinclair ZX line of computers were popular machines particularly in the UK. The ZX Spectrum is still a popular retro machine to this day, and technically small form factor. Rest in peace… Story Link – The Virge Intel had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new Arizona fab. It should be fully operational in 2023, and will likely be working on Intel 5 and Intel 3 process nodes. Story Link – Hexus.Net Intel has sent out Arc Alchemist GPU reference designs …

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Review Roundup: Corsair MP600 Pro XT SSD

Reviews for Corsair’s newest flagship SSD have dropped and they are quite positive. The Phison E18 powered drive sports up to 7,100 MB/s writes and 6,800 MB/s reads. That’s actually faster than single-channel DDR2-800 RAM that was the foundation of many computers in the Core 2 and Core 2 Quad days. One thing you may notice on the drive is the thick matte black heatsink covering the PCB. This heatsink provides additional cooling above and beyond case airflow but does limit the drive’s placement in certain systems. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the PS5. Click on the links for …

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Tek Everything Builds NFC S4T With Ryzen 5700G APU

Tek Everything has released a new build-video featuring the NFC S4T with a Ryzen 5700G APU. The video shows the complete build along with thermal testing using a Noctua NH-L9a. This should give anyone considering this case a good look at the base build. I can hear your mind asking the question “what do you mean base build?”. The Not From Concentrate Skyreach S4 Tiny starts at only 3.3L. However, you can stack multiple cases together and expand the design to add expansion. Essentially, the case can expand to whatever size you want, however 7L will easily get you a …