What happens in Vegas... we'll share with you all here! (+ a giveaway!)

Hey all,

I'm excited to share that SFF Network will have our largest-ever crew on-location at CES 2019 this week! As the conference progresses, be sure to check out the forum and SFF Network for updates from us as we prowl the show floor, looking for what's next in the SFF space (and maybe-probably-definitely getting into the occasional shenanigans).

In celebration of the exciting week to come, I'd also like to kick off what is probably our biggest giveaway to date! On the workshop table we have a collection of pretty solid gear to give out, including:

One (1)
Silverstone CS280 NAS chassis... for that 60TB media library you've always wanted but never had the room for.

Two (2)
Silverstone SX650-G PSUs... for a new SFF build that's truly without compromise.

One (1)
Corsair h115i RGB Platinum 280mm AIO... for people without taste. Erm, I mean, for people who like lights and colors and stuff, I guess. No judgement here.

One (1)
Noctua C14S... For efficient-as-hell cooling, whether you care about performance or acoustics.

One (1)
ASRock X399m... For when 16 cores just isn't enough.

To enter the giveaway, simply share in this thread what you're looking forward to this year – be it SFF related or not! Standard T's and C's apply below. We will draw one winner for each of the prizes sometime next week. Entries will be closed on Friday, January 11, 2019 at 11:59 EST.

Giveaway is open worldwide, except where prohibited. No purchase is necessary to enter. Shipping will be paid for by SFF Network, a division of Minutiae Media. Any taxes or Customs charges are the responsibility of the winner. Minutiae Media reserves the right to send the prize without tracking at winner's risk if shipping costs an arm and a leg. No hardware other than what's specified is included. Standard terms and conditions apply.
 

rokabeka

network packet manipulator
Jul 9, 2016
248
268
I wait for cheap 10G switches. the new 2.5G and 10G NICs need to be served at home. can't wait my NAS, media player pc and workstation connected on 10G network :)
 

miptzi

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 20, 2017
95
73
By the lack of pictures and posts, this CES was short on sff stuff in general... what a bummer
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
well, off the top of my head (not strictly SFF):
  • Corsair adding The Little Monster as their top end Corsair One SFFPC (smaller volume for the performance?)
  • Corsair's SFX SF750 Platinium and Silverstone's SFX 700G (smaller high-wattage PSUs?) (also 1KW SFX when??)
  • Coolermaster Q500L ATX case is right about the same outline as the mATX Q300L despite being about 34L (smaller ATX case?)
  • Lian Li's air-cooler ITX carrying case, volume TBA (smaller in their lineup?)
  • power-limited 2080 on MXM (smaller?)
  • simpler fittings/topology from EK and Alphacool (smaller watercooling footprint?)
.... yeah others I might need to look up ._. although you have the other end that are concepts and prototypes to house the X599 giant motherboard
 
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PlayfulPhoenix

Founder of SFF.N
Original poster
SFFLAB
Chimera Industries
Gold Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
1,052
1,990
I would add AMD's announcements to that list. Their new graphics really just bring them to nVidia's price/performance at the
(roughly) 2070-2080 level, sadly, But the little they showed of Ryzen Zen 2 is pretty promising; in particular, the 8-core part matching 9900K performance with notably less wattage (for the computer, not broken out to the chip specifically).

Looking at 2019, high-performance SFF builds will be pretty challenging to build. A lot of top-tier cards are using lots of power, to the point where three-slot coolers are becoming more common than not. On the CPU side, top Intel parts have demanded more power than past generations. In combination this has really bucked the trend of ever-more efficient builds, really stressing the thermal limits of the sorts of builds we've all seen and done in past years. So any improvement in efficiency at the top tiers of performance will count for a lot for us.
 
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Boil

SFF Guru
Nov 11, 2015
1,253
1,094
...Ryzen 2 is pretty promising; in particular, the 8-core part matching 9900K performance with notably less wattage (for the computer, not broken out to the chip specifically).

Zen 2 / Ryzen 3rd Gen, actually...

Motherboards & CPUs aside, the systems they used to test were alike in all other aspects, so the power usage differential should be attributed to the CPU itself...

Looking at 2019, high-performance SFF builds will be pretty challenging to build. A lot of top-tier cards are using lots of power, to the point where three-slot coolers are becoming more common than not. On the CPU side, top Intel parts have demanded more power than past generations. In combination this has really bucked the trend of ever-more efficient builds, really stressing the thermal limits of the sorts of builds we've all seen and done in past years. So any improvement in efficiency at the top tiers of performance will count for a lot for us.

That Radeon VII GPU is a pretty big piece of hardware; 305mm in length, & what looks like a 140mm (or so?) height; at least it is a dual slot card (single slot if water-cooled, but then add another 15mm or so of height for the terminal on top)...

Looking past CES 2019 & excited for what Computex 2019 might hold in regards to Zen 2 CPUs, Navi GPUs, & X570 ITX motherboards...!!!
 
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Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
Zen 2 / Ryzen 3rd Gen, actually...

Motherboards & CPUs aside, the systems they used to test were alike in all other aspects, so the power usage differential should be attributed to the CPU itself...



That Radeon VII GPU is a pretty big piece of hardware; 305mm in length, & what looks like a 140mm (or so?) height; at least it is a dual slot card (single slot if water-cooled, but then add another 15mm or so of height for the terminal on top)...

Looking past CES 2019 & excited for what Computex 2019 might hold in regards to Zen 2 CPUs, Navi GPUs, & X70 ITX motherboards...!!!
I'm definitely intrigued by the prospect of moving to a 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU and Radeon VII from my 8700T/1080ti FTW3 system later in the year.
I have always had a soft spot for AMD and preferred to use them if they are competitive and I think this year could see AMD take an edge at the high end, even if NVidia has the edge at the super high end of things.

The triple fan cooler is really relieving, I had to get rid of my Vega 64/2700X system for what I have now because of the noise and heat, where as I now don't have either of those issues, so I'm hoping the stock cooler is cool and quiet for these new cards.
 

Medeyer

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
May 30, 2017
3
0
Looking forward to AMDs 3rd gen Ryzen as well. Still rocking a 4670k but would like to upgrade soon. Lian Li's PC-TU150 could be improved upon by making the PSU SFX exlusively, removing radiator support, but keeping the triple expansion slots. One of those EVGA phat 2060s would fit nicely in there.
 

Reldey

Master of Cramming
Feb 14, 2017
387
405
There was also the VisionTek Mini Pro EGPu which looked really interesting, but still very expensive at $350. Very portable though, and more expansion options than the Gigabyte mini EGPU.
 

PlayfulPhoenix

Founder of SFF.N
Original poster
SFFLAB
Chimera Industries
Gold Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
1,052
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Our winners have been selected! Congratulations to some of our fellow community members:

@FoskcoRS5 who selected the ASRock X399m!..
@K888D who selected the Corsair h115i RGB Platinum 280mm AIO!..
@Legion who selected the Noctua C14S!..
@dumplinknet who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
@psurge who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
and @DKsystem who selected the Silverstone CS280 NAS chassis!

Thanks to everyone who jumped in the thread and/or otherwise followed our coverage during CES 2019! We'll see you all at Computex ;)
 

Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
Our winners have been selected! Congratulations to some of our fellow community members:

@FoskcoRS5 who selected the ASRock X399m!..
@K888D who selected the Corsair h115i RGB Platinum 280mm AIO!..
@Legion who selected the Noctua C14S!..
@dumplinknet who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
@psurge who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
and @DKsystem who selected the Silverstone CS280 NAS chassis!

Thanks to everyone who jumped in the thread and/or otherwise followed our coverage during CES 2019! We'll see you all at Computex ;)
Must have been an issue PlayfulPhoenix? I don't seem to see my name against all prizes, can you recheck the draw?
;P

Congrats to the winners! Hope you guys have fun with your new toys!
 

FoskcoRS5

Designated LMG
Jan 31, 2017
363
623
Our winners have been selected! Congratulations to some of our fellow community members:

@FoskcoRS5 who selected the ASRock X399m!..
@K888D who selected the Corsair h115i RGB Platinum 280mm AIO!..
@Legion who selected the Noctua C14S!..
@dumplinknet who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
@psurge who selected a Silverstone SX650-G PSU!..
and @DKsystem who selected the Silverstone CS280 NAS chassis!

Thanks to everyone who jumped in the thread and/or otherwise followed our coverage during CES 2019! We'll see you all at Computex ;)
Thank you for the opportunity to be a member of this community! Can’t wait for computex and more SFF swag!
 
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