gaming – SFF.Network

CES 2019: AMD

The SFFn crew (Tim and Joshua and myself) just had to make it to the AMD keynote – here’s what we saw! The Radeon VII is a triple fan card, so not the smallest. However, for the water enthusiasts amongst us, the card has all the IO in a single slot – no more DVI here! Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

Motherboards Reviews

ASRock’s Fatal1ty X470-ITX/ac – Back to the Future

With the second generation of Ryzen processors on the market, it’s only fitting than a new, upgraded, chipset family is available. With this in mind, today we are looking at ASRock’s first AMD 400 series M-ITX board, the X470 Gaming-ITX/ac. This board is a younger brother to the previously reviewed X370 Gaming-ITX/ac, with a few changes to the layout, as well as the aesthetic. ASRock’s partnership with the Fatal1ty brand goes back some time, and has always been associated with bright, Gam3r-esque branding and design. Not any more it seems, with this new generation of motherboards taking on a much …

News

Laptop Launch Extravaganza!

Earlier this week, the rest of Intel’s 300 series of chipsets and a few related mobile processors were released, meaning every man and his dog has updated their existing lineup, or launched new products based on the new chips. Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting laptop-related tidbits, in no particular order; Intel Not to be overshadowed by all the manufacturer launches, Intel has also launched a product of their own, an i9 Mobile processor. Specifically, the Core i9-8950HK, a 2.9GHz, 45w rated part. Based on the Coffee Lake silicon (on 14nm), the chip features 6 cores, 12 …

News

Xiaomi Launches a Non-GAM3R Gaming Laptop

Xiaomi, a brand better known for their Mi brand smartphones and powerbanks, has launched their first gaming laptop, the Mi Gaming Laptop. The laptop was launched at the Mi Mix 2s launch event in Shanghai, China yesterday. What’s remarkable about this gaming laptop is the lack of aggressive, “gamer” aesthetics – with the RGB turned off (as it should be!), the Mi Gaming Laptop could look at home in a business meeting one minute, and a gaming event the next. The 20.9mm (at it’s thickest point) thick, the brushed aluminium chassis is an exercise in subtle design. Xiaomi has decided …

Motherboards Reviews

Fatal1ty! ASRock’s X370 and AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboards Reviewed

History lesson time folks! Back in the early 2000’s, a FPS shooter player, Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, was dominating the competitive gaming scene, earning attention from not only the gaming fraternity, but mainstream media also. Soon enough, a company, ABit, approached Fatal1ty with a brand deal. ABit would build Fatal1ty branded hardware, cementing his name in the minds of the gamers and hardware enthusiasts of the era. ABit unfortunately fell, along with DFI, BFG and a few other contemporaries. What once were glorious hardware manufacturers, became relegated to history. Some retreated to OEM only production, while others were stripped for any …

Editorial

Opinion – M-DTX, The Ultimate SFF Motherboard

Quite a few years ago, AMD launched the DTX (and by extension, the M-DTX) standard, aiming to reduce costs in motherboard manufacturing by more efficiently optimising the use of a standard sheet of PCB material. In doing so, they inadvertently created what I consider the ideal SFF board form factor – M-DTX. This form factor offers the best of the M-ATX and M-ITX formats, in a balanced design. M-DTX offers us the best of the expandable SFF world – not too big, but not too small. Leaving M-ATX in the dust, M-DTX would offer us the world in a little …

Events

AuckLAN 7.5, A NZ LAN 2-4 December

AuckLAN 7.5 is happening this weekend, at MegaWeb in Auckland, New Zealand. As a continuation of the AuckLAN series, this smaller LAN is a great event for those in the Auckland Area. I will be attending the LAN representing SmallFormFactor.net, and sponsoring a couple of prizes for attendees, with support from Noctua. If you live in Auckland, please join in, the weekend promises to bring a lot of fun, and your support of one of the smaller LANs in NZ. Register at Aucklan.com!

News

ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/Wi-Fi/Aura motherboard

Asus is at it again. They have announced the B150I Pro Gaming/Wi-Fi/Aura motherboard. The B150I is an alternative to the Maximus VIII Impact for budget conscious Mini-ITX gamers. The B150I comes with a nice red and black color scheme. It also features LED lights running down the back side that can be customized via the Asus Aura desktop utility. The board offers an assortment of Asus tech including Supreme FX, Sonic Radar II audio, ASUS LANGuard, and GameFirst. There are 4 SATA III ports, three fan headers, and an M.2 x4 port on the backside for the latest and greatest …

News

Invasion of the Curved 34″ AIO’s

Watching CES 2016 coverage, we noted a rather interesting trend – 34″ Curved screen AIO systems. Quite a few of them – there have been 3 launched so far, and it’s only the first day of the event! All In Ones have always been on the borderline of decent setups – they’ve never really been upgradeable. This looks to be changing though, as 3 major pre-built system manufacturers have launched new AIO products. Origin PC Omni The Omni from Origin PC combines customization options and build flexibility with an all-in-one body, using a 3,440 x 1,440-pixel, 34-inch curved display. The …

News

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 …