EVGA launches the X99 Micro2
Today EVGA is launching the X99 Micro2, a refresh with several much needed improvements over the original X99 Micro. Notable changes are the all black capacitors, a USB 3.1 type-C port on the rear IO, PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gb/s M.2 slot (lanes shared with the bottom PCIe slot), isolated audio, 4 more Sata 3.0 ports (for a total of 10), and a few other nice tweaks. The other specs are carried over: microATX form factor, Intel LGA 2011v3 socket, four DDR4 RAM slots, 3 PCIe 3.0 slots (40-lane: x16 / x16 / x8 and 20-lane: x16 / x8 / x4), USB 3.0 header, …
MSI Launches New SFF Prebuilt, the Nightblade MI
Well, it looks like SFF has hit the mainstream – even the big hardware makers are pre-building SFF systems for you! MSI has just launched their new system, the Nightblade MI. Measuring 126.7 x 234.8 x 340.6 mm in size (10.13 litres), this system really does fit the bill of Small Form Factor. Materials appear to be steel and plastic, but the major standout is the CPU cooler – is that a laptop style cooler we see there? No word yet on how loud this system will be. The graphics card (a GTX960 2GB) slots in ‘above’ the motherboard, in …
Gigabyte Launches a Unique GTX970
In the SFF world, the bane of our existence is heat. We find many creative ways to exhaust the watts of heat our hardware put out, from adding extra vents to crazy fan combinations. Constantly fighting us, however, is the general trend of GPU manufacturers insisting that having open style coolers on the cards is a good thing. All this does is add even more heat to our already sauna-like systems. Gigabyte has blown this trend with a new card – the GV-N970TTOC-4GD – with a blower style cooler! The Gigabyte GTX970 Twin Turbo has a blower fan which pulls air from …
Asus formally launches the X99M-WS microATX motherboard
JJ from Asus first started hinting at a microATX X99 solution from them back in April this year then pics started surfacing of the board during Computex. The product page and manual showed up earlier this month and now Asus has officially launched it, the Asus X99M-WS. So what are we getting? Rather than a Rampage Gene like previous platforms, for X99 we’re instead getting a WorkStation-series board with that beautiful black/dark grey color scheme from the X99-E WS. So not a Republic Of Gamers board but JJ said that the X99M-WS carries some of the over-engineered pedigree of the …
Jonsbo C2 – Sitting In The Middle
In the search for a chassis to fit my slightly oversized M-DTX motherboard, I came across the Jonsbo C2. Jonsbo may not seem like a familiar name, but the company supplies quite a few different models to Rosewill. I bought this case to run my every day system, so quality, quietness and cooling capacity were major decision points. So far in use, I would say that quality and quietness are of a good standard, however cooling leaves a bit to be desired. Let’s look at this product in a bit more detail: The box is very simple, but sufficiently thick enough to protect the …
ID-Cooling Announces All-In-One Liquid Cooler With CPU And GPU Blocks
I still remember the day, some years ago, when I stumbled upon a review of PNY’s “Liquid Cooled” GTX 580 on Tom’s Hardware. It was an unassuming article, for the most part, if not a little more interesting since sealed loops were still only starting to become more popular. But what made that product review so interesting to me was the fact that there were actually two versions on offer by PNY: A traditional AIO loop (with an integrated pump/block, and radiator/reservoir)… and this: You aren’t seeing things: all the way back in 2011, PNY created and sold an AIO that incorporated …
Plextor Launches M6V, a Value SSD
Plextor announced the launch of its entry-level M6V series, SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs. The drives feature a Silicon Motion SMI-2246 controller with Toshiba 16 nm Toggle NAND flash memory. The 128 GB variant features 128 MB of DRAM cache, with sequential speeds of up to 535 MB/s reads, with up to 170 MB/s writes. The 256 GB variant, which comes with a larger 256 MB DRAM cache, offers up to 535 MB/s reads, with up to 335 MB/s writes. The 512 GB variant leads the pack, with a 512 MB DRAM cache, up to 535 MB/s reads, and up to 455 MB/s writes. 4K …
AMD Launches Budget A-Series APU, A8-7670K
AMD today announced the launch of its newest socket FM2+ APU, the A8-7670K. This APU, is based on the company’s new 28 nm “Godavari” silicon, like the recently-launched A10-7870K. This quad core Excavator based APU features Radeon R7 graphics, with 6 Graphics CoreNext 1.2 units, totalling 384 stream processors, dual channel DDR3 controller, 4MB of cache and PCIE Gen3. The APU runs at 3.6GHz, which can TurboCore up to 3.9GHz. Overclocking is available, with unlocked multipliers and DDR3-2133 support. The GPU is clocked at 757MHz and supports DX12. Dual-Graphics is supported, enabling pairing with an AMD discrete GPU. The APU has …