intel – SFF.Network

ASUS Upgrades the ROG Huracan G21 Prebuilt

Launched in the middle of 2018, the ASUS ROG Huracan G21 has been getting a bit long in the tooth. Realising this, ASUS has decided to give the system the refresh treatment, upgrading the platform, CPU and GPU. This 17.7L (129.9×372.4×366.1 mm) chassis houses a decent gaming rig, replete with the RGB and fancy acronyms expected. First up, ASUS has replaced the original H370 chipset board with a Z370 unit – possibly unlocking the ability to overclock. This upgrade is to support a choice of CPUs based on the Intel 9th gen platform, namely the i7-9900K, 9700K and the i5-9400K. …

News

CES 2020 – A SFF Roundup

Whilst we were unable to attend CES 2020, I’ve been trawling the depths of the interwebs for SFF related coverage to summarise in lieu of aforementioned physical presence. Let’s go! AMD Of course, AMD took centre stage, continuing the steamroller-like (pun intended, sorry!) push of the recent years. AMD produces both CPUs and GPUs, so we get a double barrelled keynote. AMD is pushing into the laptop space more than ever, with the new Ryzen 4000 series, Zen 2 core, 7nm laptop CPUs. Taking aim at the three laptop market segments – ultrathin, gaming and professional, a pair of new …

Reviews Systems

Guest Review: ECS Liva Z2

This review has been provided by forum member Duality92! Editing has been performed by John Morrison. I would like to take this opportunity to thank ECS for this product sample, they have provided me with an ECS Liva Z2 for the purpose of this review. ECS is no newcomer in the Mini PC world, this is the third unit I have reviewed, the others being the Liva Plus and the miniscule Liva Q. The Liva Z2 is the latest generation of the fanless Mini PC lineup from ECS. It sports the Intel Gemini Lake CPU, which were released in Q4 …

Motherboards Reviews

ASRock’s Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac – A New Direction

For some time, ASRock has been using the Fatal1ty branding on their high end products – a tie back to the days of old, where Quake was king, and bright, flashy branding was cool. However, Fatal1ty has given way to ASRock’s “Phantom Gaming” brand, with a much more subtle aesthetic. All black? Yes please! Beefy heatsinks? Yessir! First sighted on ASRock’s limited availability (unfortunately) GPU line, the Phantom Gaming brand has come to motherboards – slowly taking over the performance space within ASRock’s lineup. This particular model uses the Intel Z390 chipset – what Z370 should have been, but I digress. …

News

The first Intel Z390 board has been revealed, by ASRock

Dubbed the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac (edit: link doesn’t work anymore), ASRock is the first to officially launch an mITX Z390 board, Intel’s latest chipset supporting the 9th Gen Intel Core processors that are right around the corner. The stand-out features are the Thunderbolt 3 enabled USB Type-C connector, as well as the four USB 3.1 Gen2 ports (10Gb/s per port) at the rear, with an additional two USB 3.1 Gen1 (5Gb/s per port) at the rear as well, along with two more via the internal header for the case front panel. The M.2 heatsink stands out as well, with …

Reviews Systems

ASRock’s DeskMini 310 – NUC Killer?

We’ve looked at ASRock’s DeskMini range in the past, with in depth analysis of the B250 and Z370 series DeskMini GTX/RX models – with GTX1080 and GTX1060 GPUs included. These cater for the high end, with prices to suit. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the DeskMini 110 and 310 – Mini-STX rather than Micro-STX, and integrated graphics only. The barebones market is an interesting one – DIY PC with less DIY, but better manufacturer support. Buy a barebones box, slap in a CPU, RAM and storage and you’re off – no power supply selection headaches, board …

Motherboards Reviews

ASRock’s H370M-ITX/ac – Workstation Wonder

ASRock’s H370M-ITX/ac is a highly specced, mid-range board based on Intel’s H370 chipset. Offering near Z370 specs at a slight bump over the price of a B360 board, this new motherboard offers an interesting value proposition. Offering a strong complement of IO, as well as numerous display options from your Intel Coffee Lake integrated graphics, there are many use cases for such a product. This particular ASRock motherboard offers a great feature set for the dollar, but what makes this motherboard worth your consideration? Let’s find out. Z vs H vs B vs Q – Intel’s Chipset Confusion Selling for …

News

Supermicro at Computex 2018

SFF Network’s COMPUTEX 2018 coverage is sponsored by SilverStone, who’s celebrating 15 years of innovation in SFF and beyond. Click here to check out their website and to learn more about their latest products. Walking through the hectic show halls of Computex 2018 towards another meeting, we spied something a little different from the traditionally server focused Supermicro. A consumer orientated M-ITX board? Let’s have a look! Not a bad showing at all from a company that doesn’t traditionally cater to the consumer market. It seems Supermicro has taken their (immense) server expertise and translated it into a retail motherboard …