Connexion
Today we are taking a look at the most powerful SFX-L PSU on the planet, the SilverStone SX1000. As its name suggests, the SX1000 can provide up to 1 kW of power, an unprecedented figure for an SFX form factor power supply. But does such a powerful PSU have a place in the market for compact computers?
On the back of Intel's recent Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 announcement, ASRock has announced one of the first motherboards to support the new processors, the ASRock C621A WS. Some of its core features include four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots, three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, two M.2 slots, eight memory slots with support for up to 2TB of DDR4 memory, and dual 10 Gb plus dual Gigabit Ethernet on the rear panel.
The latest iteration of Intel's 3rd generation Xeon Scalable platform comes via the Xeon W-3300 family, which is essentially Ice Lake for workstations. The top SKU, Xeon W-3375, contains 38 cores (76 threads), with a base frequency of 2.5 GHz, 57 MB of L3 cache, and a maximum TDP of 270 W. All of Intel's Xeon W-3300 family includes 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to eight-channel DDR4, and support for up to 256 GM LRDIMMs with a maximum capacity of up to 4 TB per socket.
The ASRock C621A WS motherboard uses a transposed single LGA4189 socket and is flanked by eight horizontally mounted memory slots. There's support for up to DDR4 DIMMs at speeds up to 3200 MT/s, with a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB, with UDIMMs, RDIMMs, and LRDIMMs all supported. Dominating the lower section of the board are four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three full-length PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, with one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. For conventional SATA devices, ASRock includes two SATA ports with one mini-SAS HD connector.
As for network connectivity, ASRock includes a pair of 10 GbE that are powered by an Intel X710-ATX Ethernet controller, as well as another pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports driven by a pair of Intel I210 controllers. Other connectivity includes a D-sub video output which allows users to access the board's BMC functionality, which is provided via an ASPEED AST2500 controller, with a dedicated Ethernet port allowing for remote access to the BMC. In terms of USB, there are four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports on the rear panel, with further expansion available through internal headers. This includes room to installed up to four USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports through front panel headers, one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A header for two ports, and one USB 2.0 header, which also can support another two ports.
Although the new Intel Xeon W-3300 family of processors includes native support for Thunderbolt 4 and Intel's Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, ASRock has opted not to use either of these features. Whether this is intentional from ASRock remains to be seen, as it may release more variants later. At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't given pricing information, but we expect the C621A WS to be available in retail channels soon.
With prices on AMD's Ryzen 5950X 16-core Zen 3 based processor slowly coming back into the realms of MSRP, ASUS is taking advantage of recent events by announcing its latest flagship X570 motherboard, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme. Overtaking the current ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero as the premier motherboard in the ROG series, the Extreme includes a 20-phase power delivery, dual Thunderbolt 4-capable USB Type-C ports, 10 Gb Ethernet, and support for up to five PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives.
In what looks like one of ASUS's last motherboard unveilings for AMD's X570 platform, the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is ultimately its most feature-packed Ryzen desktop motherboard so far. While ASUS at the time of writing hasn't unveiled a full list of the specifications, we know many of the board's core features, giving the EATX-sized board an impressive résumé. At the heart of the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme are dual full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate in either x16/x0 or x8/x8 when paired with a Ryzen 5000 or 3000 desktop processor. ASUS also includes a small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for one more peripheral.
The ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme design for X570 follows a black glossy aesthetic, with multiple areas of integrated RGB LED lighting, including along the rear panel cover, chipset heatsink, and even part of the underside of the board. Along with other X570/X570S motherboards recently announced, the Crosshair VIII Extreme will feature a passively cooled chipset.
For storage, ASUS includes three onboard PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, with room to add a further two PCIe 4.0 x4 slots via an included DIMM.2 slot located to the right of four memory slots. There are six SATA ports for conventional SATA devices with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. ASUS hasn't listed the memory QVL list at the time of writing, but we know this board will support up to 128 GB of DDR4 across four memory slots.
Other features include an Intel Thunderbolt 4 controller that's driving a pair of USB Type-C ports, a Marvel AQC1113CS 10 Gb Ethernet controller, and a second Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. On top of this, there's Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface, which also supports the latest BT 5.2 devices. Onboard audio is also quite premium, spearheaded by a ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 HD audio codec and is assisted by an ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC.
With 'Extreme' being this model's moniker and focus, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII uses a 20-phase power delivery (18+2) with premium 90 A power stages and is likely to be arranged in teamed mode, which is a common theme in its power design across the series. This also includes an LN2 mode dip switch designed for enthusiasts looking to use aggressive sub-zero cooling methods such as liquid nitrogen (LN2) or dry ice (DICE) for the maximum benchmark performance.
At the time of writing, ASUS hasn't announced when the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme will be available to purchase or how much it will cost.
Source: ASUS
Back in March, we reviewed AMD's latest Zen 3 based EPYC 7003 processors, including the 64-core EPYC 7763 and 7713. We've updated the data back in June with a retail motherboard, and it scores much higher, showing how EPYC Milan can be refined more than it was at launch. Putting two 64-core processors into a system requires a more than capable motherboard, and today on the test bench is the GIGABYTE MZ720-HB0 (Revision 3.0), which has plenty of features to boast about. Some of the most important ones include five full-length PCIe 4.0 slots, dual 10 GbE, lots of PCIe 4.0 NVMe and SATA storage options, as well as dual SP3 sockets, and sixteen memory slots with support for up to 4 TB of capacity.
ASRock Rack has unveiled two new motherboards designed for Intel's Ice Lake SP platform, the SPC621D8 and the SPC621D8-2L2T. Both boards feature a single LGA4189 socket design on an ATX-sized PCB, with eight memory slots supporting up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, seven PCIe 4.0 slots, and dual PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots. The SPC621D8-2L2T also gets five Ethernet ports, including dual 10 Gb Ethernet on the rear panel.
On the surface, both the ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 share the same core feature set, which includes four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three half-length PCIe 4.0 x8 slots. Three of the full-length slots will automatically switch down to PCIe 4.0 x8 when the lower half-length slot is populated. Sitting on either side of the transposed LGA4189 socket are eight memory slots that are arranged into two banks of four. These slots can support up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, in the form of RDIMMs and LRDIMMs.
The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T motherboard
The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 both include a varied selection of storage options, including one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. The SPC621D8 has support for up to thirteen SATA ports, with six 7-pin headers included from the C621A chipset with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. The SPC621D8-2L2T has support for eight SATA ports, with the same level of RAID support. Both models include two SATA DOM headers and also include a mini-SAS HD header.
Driving the management side of things is an ASPEED AST2500 BMC controller. This can be accessed via a single D-sub video output or a dedicated management Ethernet port hooked up to a Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit controller. Both variants include various headers around the board, with some of the most notable which include a TPM header, COM header, PMBus connector, and an IPMB header. There are five 6-pin fan headers for cooling, one 24-pin 12 V ATX power input that provides power to the motherboard, and one 8-pin and one 4-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input pairing.
The ASRock SPC621D8-2L2T (top) and SPC621D8 (bottom) rear panels
Both boards share a similar rear panel layout, but with one major difference. The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T includes dual 10 GbE via an Intel X710-AT2 Ethernet controller, which is on top of the two Intel I210 Gigabit controllers and the Realtek RTL8211E management LAN port that are common to both boards. Both panels include a D-sub video output for the BMC, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, and a UID indicator LED button.
We don't have pricing for either the SPC621D8-2L2T or the SPC621D8 ATX motherboards or when they will hit retail shelves at the time of writing.
Source: ASRock Rack
Over the past six months we've looked at a varied selection of Z590 motherboards. While most of these have been in the mid-range to premium category, today we are taking a look at a more modest and cost-effective Z590 model. The Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E sits toward the lower end of ASRock's Z590 offerings. It combines a varied feature set that includes 2.5 gigabit Ethernet, Intel's latest Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, three M.2 slots, all while adopting a unique urban camouflaged PCB design. We give the Z590 Steel Legend our attention and see if budget Z590 has its limitations or if it's money well spent.
Despite the Z590 chipset being the premium option for Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake processors, and the boards starting around $200, not every model is there to decimate the wallet. Every vendor has models designed for entry-level, mid-range, and even the flagship models - it's all a question of where the vendor thinks those delineated markets are. Some boards certainly have eye-watering prices attached to them, for example. Focusing on the mid-range segment, today we're taking a look at the ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI. Its most prominent features include three M.2 slots, USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C support, and a solid pair of networking controllers, including Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. The sub $300 Z590 market is awash with options for users, but does ASUS hold the key to unlocking Rocket Lake's potential at what it thinks is a reasonable price? Let's find out.
Late last year, we took stock of the the state of the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ecosystem. It was not a rosy outlook at that time. But since then, many vendors have introduced new products in the 20 Gbps-performance class, and host support has also started to look up. A few new enclosures in this speed class have also appeared in the market.
In parallel, we have seen 3D NAND layer counts go up and QLC become more prevalent. Capacities of SSDs and external bus-powered direct-attached storage (DAS) devices have increased, with 4TB being offered by almost all vendors. Consumer trends in terms of DAS workloads has also undergone some shifts.
To that end, today we're going to take a fresh look at the market for 20Gbps external storage enclosures, thanks to some new enclosures as well as our new DAS test suite. Read on for a detailed look at our new direct-attached storage testing infrastructure, along with the evaluation results from our first set of evaluated products - the Silverstone Tek MS12 and the Yottamaster HC2-C3 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps NVMe SSD enclosures.
Back in January, Intel launched its Jasper Lake platform with a range of dual-core and quad-core Tremont Atom-based processors.. Primarily aimed at the notebook and Chromebook market, Intel's Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium Silver chips are using 10nm Tremont Atom cores as low as 6 W. Today we have learned that ASUS has unveiled its first Jasper Lake system via the N5105I-IM-A mini-ITX motherboard for the DIY market, with a passively cooled design, and supports the Intel Celeron N5105 4-core 4-thread processor.
Based on the small form factor mini-ITX platform, the ASUS N5105I-IM-A includes two SO-DIMM memory slots, although ASUS hasn't revealed a full list of the specifications. It is using a 4-pin 12 V ATX power input, with an additional 4-pin 12 V power output. The N5105I-IM-A is designed to support Intel's Celeron N5105 processor, which features four Tremont Atom cores, four threads, and features a base frequency of 2 GHz, a turbo frequency of 2.9 GHz, and has a 10 W TDP.
Due to the low power by the Intel Celeron N5105, ASUS has opted for a gold-colored copper CPU heatsink, which comes supplied with the board. Looking at onboard connectivity, ASUS includes what looks like a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, with two SATA ports and one 4-pin fan header for a chassis fan. Video is provided by the graphics on the CPU.
On the rear panel is a range of input and output, including two video outputs consisting of an HDMI and D-sub output, with three Serial ports. The board also includes support for an RJ11/DIO connector that is regularly used for cash registers and an MSR/RFID reader for credit and debit card payments. In terms of USB, four Type-A ports are likely USB 3.0, and it also includes one Ethernet port that an unspecified controller powers.
At the time of writing, we don't have any information on the pricing or the availability of the ASUS N5105I-IM-A motherboard.
Source: FanlessTech
Colorful has unveiled two new motherboards designed for Intel Rocket Lake and Comet Lake processors. The CVN B560I Gaming V20 and CVN B560I Gaming Frozen are based on the Mini-ITX form factor, and both share the same feature set; the only difference is in the aesthetics. The most prominent features include one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, four SATA ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet controller.
Designed around the budget-friendly Intel B560 chipset for 11th and 10th generation Intel desktop processors, both the Colorful CVN B560I Gaming V20 and Frozen models include an unspecified 8-phase power delivery (6+2), with one 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input and a 24-pin 12 V ATX motherboard inputs. On the right-hand side of the board are a pair of memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4266 and can accommodate up to 64 GB.
At the time of writing, Colorful hasn't divulged its controller set, but we know it has one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot and one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot along the bottom of the board. For cooling, both boards include three 4-pin fan headers with four straight-angled SATA ports, which can be found on the right-hand side of the PCB. The only difference between both models is that the Frozen variant has a white PCB, and the V20 uses a black PCB. This gives users the option to find a solution to fit their systems aesthetic; However, Colorful doesn't specify if either model includes integrated RGB LED lighting. We would assume neither does based on the images.
Both models share the same rear panel I/O layout and include one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Colorful provides a pair of video outputs, including HDMI and DisplayPort, while an unspecified HD audio codec powers three 3.5 mm audio jacks. Regarding networking, there's one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, which also includes support for BT 5.0 devices.
At present, Colorful hasn't provided pricing or when the CVN B560I Gaming V20 and Gaming Frozen models will hit retail shelves.
Source: Colorful
The portable SSD market has been steadily expanding thanks to the increasing digital footprint of consumers. Technological advancements such as 3D NAND with high layer counts and the emergence of QLC have enabled SSD capacities to increase substantially over the last few years. And with those economies of scale kicking in, multiple vendors are finally able to offer consumer-focused flash-based storage devices in capacities up to 4TB.
At the 2021 CES, Western Digital introduced 4TB variants of almost all their portable SSD families, including their flagship SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 and the WD_BLACK P50 lines. In March, Crucial updated its affordable X6 lineup to include a 4TB version. WD's flagships and Crucial's mainstream X6 offerings represent two ends of the pricing spectrum. At the same capacity point, they present an interesting view of the tradeoffs involved in bringing a portable SSD to the market. Read on for an analysis of the performance and value propositions of the SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 and the Crucial X6 4TB portable SSDs.
On the back of a myriad of new motherboard launches based on AMD's X570 chipset, we have the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max. The new Max motherboard supersedes the previous X570 Ace, and fittingly has lots of new and improved features. Some of the biggest features of the new Ace Max include a large 18-phase power delivery with premium 90 A power stages and the inclusion of an Intel Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface. Other features include four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, support for DDR4-5300 memory, and 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet.
Perhaps on par with MSI's flagship X570 model, the Godlike, the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max looks to take things to the next level with a stylish all-black design with contrasting gold stripes and multiple areas of integrated RGB lighting. Looking at PCIe support on the X570S Ace Max, it includes three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate at x16 or x8/x8/+x4, with a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. The latter of which unfortunately shares bandwidth with the Wi-Fi 6E module, so when that is in use, the slot is disabled.
Looking at storage options, the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max has four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, including three with support for SATA drives, as well as eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. MSI also includes an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 S M.2 PCIe 4.0 addon card for users looking to add more M.2 storage. Memory support is also impressive, with support for up to DDR4-5300 and a maximum supported capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots. Keeping the system cool is a combined total of eight 4-pin headers, including one designated to a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and six for chassis fans. MSI also has a premium power delivery, with an 18-phase design using 90 A power stages versus the 60 A power stages used on the original MEG X570 Ace.
The rear panel has a solid array of input and output befitting a premium model, including one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. It uses a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller for Ethernet, and Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface for Wi-Fi, offering access to the 6 GHz band and support for BT 5.2 devices. There's also a premium onboard audio pairing of a Realtek ALC4082 HD audio codec and an ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC.
At the time of writing, we don't have pricing information or when the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max will be available at retail, but we expect this to be within the coming months.
Source: MSI
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
In today's review, we are taking a look at Noctua's NH-U12S Redux, a price-optimized version of their highly popular NH-U12S tower CPU cooler. The NH-U12S Redux has been redesigned to bring the same kind of Noctua performance, but at a retail price of just $50, making it more affordable to the masses.
The gaming market has experienced significant growth over the last decade. In addition to boosting PC sales, the peripherals market associated with the segment has also expanded. Installed sizes for games now regularly run into hundreds of gigabytes, thanks in large part to support for increased resolutions and more detailed graphics. The data also needs to be loaded into memory as fast as possible in order to improve the gaming experience.
Unsurprisingly then, gamers want the fastest possible portable SSDs to store their games. The 20 Gbps transfer rates promised by USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 has an instant appeal in this market segment. Keeping this in mind, many vendors have introduced USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 bus-powered portable SSDs targeting the gaming crowd. Last year, we looked at Western Digital's WD_BLACK P50. Seagate's FireCuda Gaming SSD was available in the market around the same time, but it didn't make it to our testbed in time for that review.
We recently got the Seagate offering into our latest testbed, and took the opportunity to refresh the numbers for the WD_BLACK P50 with our latest test suite as well. Read on for our hands-on review of the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD.
The last few years have seen plenty of new innovations come up in the hard-disk drive market. For quite some time, the HDD technology roadmap was shared industry-wide - vendors introduced new technologies at different points in time, but they were all similar in nature. As a recent example, HGST (now, Western Digital) was the first to market with helium-filled HDDs, but both Seagate and Toshiba followed up with similar drives within a few years.
Prior to 2017, there was consensus that heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) would help drive the increase in storage density for HDDs after traditional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) ran out of steam. Western Digital sprang a surprise in Q4 2017 by announcing the decision to go with microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) for future HDDs. Seagate, in the meanwhile, has been all-in on HAMR and also launched 20TB HDDs based on the technology for enterprise customers (those HAMR drives are yet to hit retail, though). In the meanwhile, Western Digital was promising MAMR drives for 16TB+ HDDs, but eventually back-tracked in favor of energy-enhanced PMR (ePMR). Toshiba, on the other hand, introduced flux control-MAMR (FC-MAMR) in its MG09-series of enterprise 16TB and 18TB HDDs.
At the HDD Reimagine event today, Western Digital is introducing OptiNAND - a novel architecture involving the integration of an embedded iNAND UFS embedded flash drive (EFD) on the drive's mainboard.
In conjunction, the company is also announcing that it has been sampling its first 20TB non-SMR drives based on OptiNAND-enabled ePMR to select customers, and that it would be adopting the OptiNAND platform moving forward for all 20TB+ HDDs. The company also sees a path to 50TB OptiNAND-enabled ePMR drives in the second half of the decade.
While the company did not quantify the amount of NAND in its OptiNAND drives, they are stressing the fact that it is not a hybrid drive (SSHD). Unlike SSHDs, the OptiNAND drives do not store any user data at all during normal operation. Instead, the NAND is being used to store metadata from HDD operation in order to improve capacity, performance, and reliability.
Western Digital's OptiNAND announcement also conveys the fact that their 20TB 9-platter HDDs will continue to use energy-enhanced PMR (ePMR). In addition to the use of a triple-stage actuator to enable more accurate positioning of the heads over the tracks, the OptiNAND aspect is being touted as the key to enabling 2.2TB capacity for each platter.
The increase in areal density is being achieved by cramming the tracks on the platter closer together (increased TPI), while also moving out some of the metadata (both factory-generated and mid-user operation) out from the platter to the NAND. In particular, Western Digital made a mention of the repeatable run out (RRO) recording of the head jitter / error position as the spindle revolves. This data (running into multiple gigabytes) is generated in the factory during manufacturing. It is typically stored in the disk, taking up space that could have potentially been used for user data. The OptiNAND architecture moves this to the NAND in the EFD.
One of the key challenges to packing tracks closer together is the concept of 'adjacent track interference' (ATI). This results in the need to periodically refresh data in the platter's tracks as it could get corrupted by writes to adjacent tracks. Currently available HDDs triggered these refreshes on a track-by-track basis based on the recording of write operations at the track-level. One of the downsides to increasing areal density by increasing the TPI is the need to do more frequent refreshes. From refreshing once in 10000 write operations in early HDDs, the narrow tracks now need to be refreshed as frequently as once every 6 writes. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't make sense to increase TPI any further because the increase in the frequency of ATI refreshes has an extreme impact on performance. In present-generation HDDs, these refreshes have been triggered at the track level by recording write operations at that hierarchy. The OptiNAND architecture allows the write operations to be recorded at the sector level. This means that the refresh operations are more spread out both temporally and spatially, allowing the tracks to be packed closer together without sacrificing performance. In turn, this increases the areal density.
Consumers can operate HDDs with the write cache in the device enabled or disabled. Irrespective of the cache enablement, the HDD has to buffer up the incoming data. In the disabled case, the amount of data that could be buffered up is dependent on the amount of data that can be safely flushed out to non-volatile storage in the case of an emergency power-off (EPO) situation. The presence of significant NAND capacity in the HDD means that the drive can use the rotational energy present in the platters to flush out more data in the DRAM into the NAND (Present-day HDDs dump out the DRAM data into serial flash - around a couple of MBs worth - in an EPO situation). The ability to buffer out more data in this case means that the performance of write-cache enabled case and write-cache disabled case approach each other in OptiNAND-enabled HDDs.
Western Digital also claims that the 'write cache enabled' case can benefit on the performance front. This is an indirect result of the reduced refresh rates (referencing the observations in the previous sub-section on how OptiNAND handles adjacent-track interference) that allows the HDD to spend more time in servicing user data requests. Again, there was no quantification of the improvement in IOPS for different access patterns over non-OptiNAND HDDs in Western Digital's event.
The aspects of OptiNAND used to enhance the performance of the drives in the write caching disabled state also contribute to enhancing their reliability under EPO conditions. By including faster non-volatile storage compared to serial flash, Western Digital claims that up to 50x more data can be flushed out compared to previous-generation HDDs.
Western Digital claims that the vertical integration possible with the HDD technology from the WD / HGST side along with the flash technology from the SanDisk side is essential for the creation of a platform like OptiNAND.
There is bound to be a cost-premium associated with the drives due to the NAND integration. New recording technologies (like HAMR and MAMR) require significant investment into the design of the recording heads as well as platters, and need to be revamped every few generations. On the other hand, technologies like OptiNAND are independent of the underlying technology.
Without exact quantification of the increase in areal density enabled by OptiNAND, it is not possible to provide comparative comments on the Capacity aspect of Western Digital's OptiNAND trifecta - except that the company is now able to introduce 20TB hard drives to the market with the same ePMR technology used in its 18TB drives (around 2.2TB/platter).
The Performance aspect should be easier to evaluate when OptiNAND drives hit retail. While the benefits for the 'write caching disabled' case (where the NAND can act as a safe cache in an EPO situation) are easy to verify (essentially acting the same as the 'write caching enabled' case), the pure 'write caching enabled' case should be much more interesting to analyze against competing drives of the same capacity.
Western Digital indicated that all of their 20TB+ HDDs moving forward will be OptiNAND-enabled. This will be across all market verticals - cloud deployment, enterprise drives (Gold), storage for surveillance recording (Purple line), and NAS (Red line). It must be noted that the company has a 20TB SMR drive already in the market that is not OptiNAND-enabled. The new HDD architecture with its flexible SoC and high-performance NAND integration can also be used to enable customer-specific enhancements in the future. The ability to use the NAND to dynamically remap sectors can increase areal density and improve performance much more in SMR drives. Based on this, we can expect OptiNAND-enabled SMR drives to gain significant capacity advantage over CMR drives in comparison to what is being seen in the market currently.
The HDD industry is not yet in dire need of CPR, but Western Digital's usage of OptiNAND to address the Capacity, Performance, and Reliability trifecta is yet another unique aspect in the innovation-rich hard-disk drive market. Western Digital has both HDD and complete flash technology (from NAND fabrication to controller) in-house, while the other HDD vendors do not have that advantage. As such, it might take the other vendors some time to catch up on the advantages of using NAND for HDD metadata.
Let us pretend we are desktop people, thinking about building a new system. What would we look for? If we are after a gaming system, clearly we need a big GPU. A very beefy CPU is a nice touch as well if we want to keep the GPU fed. Plenty of memory, lots of storage, and maybe lots of ports for expansion. Add in a nice RGB keyboard, perhaps a high refresh display, and lots of cooling. Now let us imagine we pack that into a 2.9 kg / 6.4 lb package. That seems impossible, doesn’t it? What if we added in a 99.9 Wh UPS as well? Now that is really crazy. Let me present to you the MSI GE76 Raider, which brings all of this together into the 2021 version of MSI’s Raider series of gaming laptops.
Flash-based removable media has a host of use cases in products ranging from content capture devices to portable game consoles. Behind the standards of these is the SD Association, and we saw the introduction of an NVMe-based SD Express standard (SD 7.0) in 2018, with a SD 8.0 follow-up in 2020. SD cards, as well as card readers based on these new standards, have been making the rounds at various trade shows since 2019. However, none went on to appear in the retail market. That is about to change in the coming months, with both ADATA and Lexar announcing plans to launch their SD Express 7.1 cards within the next few quarters. The cards from both vendors are based on the Silicon Motion SM2708 controller. Read on for a detailed look at what the controller brings to the table for flash-based removable storage.
Whether overclocking the CPU is your cup of morning tea/coffee/something stronger or not, there are specific motherboards built by professional overclockers and engineers designed to squeeze out as much performance as possible. For example, while the regular everyday PC user might groan at the thought of spending $500 on a Z590 motherboard with two memory slots, boards such as the ASRock Z590 OC Formula pay homage to the art of overclocking. As such, legendary overclocker and ASRock employee Nick Shih has overseen the design and creation of one of the best series of motherboards for overclocking. The OC Formula has been ASRock's brand for their pinnicle performance motherboards for generations - it seemed dead as we hand't seen it in a while, but it as come back with some blazing style. The latest iteration has had a facelift and comes with a wave of features - but can ASRock strike the right balance between enthusiast and conventional? Let's find out in our review of the Z590 OC Formula.
The external storage market has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, particularly in the retail consumer segment. It has been fueled in part by advancements in bus-powered flash-based storage devices.
Thunderbolt SSDs are at the top in terms of both performance and price, but the last few years have seen various high-end portable SSDs with a USB interface. The USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) ecosystem has been slowly gaining traction, with Kingston's XS2000 portable SSD being the latest to join the device lineup. Based on Silicon Motion's new SM232x family of UFD (USB flash drive) controllers, the product family offers full Gen 2x2 performance while consuming a fraction of the power needed by similar solutions currently in the market.
Silicon Motion sent across the bare reference board used inside the Kingston XS2000 to put through our rigorous direct-attached storage testing routine. Read on for our evaluation report of the SM2320XT reference design.
The internal storage device market segment has seen rapid evolution over the last decade after the introduction of flash-based disk drives. Beginning with 2.5-inch SSDs in early 2010s, the market moved to mSATA units while the SATA-to-NVMe transition started to gather steam. With the PCIe 4.0 transition set in motion, many users are finding themselves with spare M.2 SSDs.
A common re-purposing method has been to place the SSD in a USB enclosure. Akasa is one of the few manufacturers to possess a SSD enclosure lineup catering to almost all possible scenarios in this market segment. Read on for our review of their M.2 SSD enclosures lineup - the Akasa AK-ENU3M2-02 (SATA), AK-ENU3M2-03 (NVMe), and the AK-ENU3M2-04 (SATA / NVMe).
In anticipation of the upcoming Windows 11 launch, Microsoft is introducing an almost complete top to bottom refresh of their Surface device lineup. Ranging from the brand-new Surface Laptop studio to refreshed devices like the Surface Pro X, Microsoft's 2021 Surface lineup covers the entire spectrum, with some devices getting some minor tweaks while other devices are completely new. As tends to be the case, all of them feature quirks which are distinctively Surface.
Prior to the Huawei/Honor split, I had my hands on almost every model or flagship that Honor made. The co-design with Huawei, along with a good high-middle market for those flagships, made them competitive products. However, Honor was sold to essentially run standalone, which meant it was no longer under the US entity list bans, and could leverage Google services again. The Honor 50 is one of these devices, offering a full Google experience, and opting to pair a 700-series Snapdragon SoC with a 108 MP camera and a 6.57-inch OLED display. We had some hands-on with the Honor 50 ahead of the launch next month in October.
Plugable is introducing its Thunderbolt 4 product lineup today, with the TBT4-HUB3C Thunderbolt 4 Hub leading the pack. Joining it are two Thunderbolt 4 cables - the 2m. long TBT4-40G2M, and the 1m. long TBT4-40G1M.
Intel had provided detailed updates on Thunderbolt 4 in mid-2020 before releasing it in Tiger Lake-based products. As peak bandwidth (40Gbps) didn't get an upgrade over Thunderbolt 3, many consumers just considered it a branding update. In fact, under the hood, the specifications were being fine-tuned to bring in some features from the USB world. It is these new features that Plugable is focusing on:
The TBT4-40G2M (active) and TBT4-40G1M (passive) are Intel-certified Thunderbolt 4 cables, priced at $59 ($49 after coupon application) and $34 ($29 after coupon application) respectively. The pricing premium is due to increased certification costs (the factory is required to get random manufacturing lots repeatedly tested for Thunderbolt 4 cables, compared to only the initial manufacturing run previously).
These cables complement the Thunderbolt 4 flagship from Plugable - the Goshen Ridge-based TBT4-HUB3C. The JHL8440 Goshen Ridge controller used in the hub is a quad-port solution - one upstream, and three downstream ports.
The TBT4-HUB3C comes with a 0.8m passive Thunderbolt 4 cable, a 110W power brick, and a bundled USB-C to HDMI adapter supporting resolutions up to 4Kp60 with HDR. The main hub itself is quite tiny compared to the power brick, measuring just 118 mm x 18 mm x 73 mm. Despite the small size, the unit has a solid look and feel with its brushed finish. The hub tips the scales at 201g, light enough to be considered pocketable.
Plugable also bundles a USBC-HDMI adapter (USB-C male to HDMI 2.0 female converter supporting DisplayPort Alternate Mode from the USB-C side) with the package. The intent is to route the incoming display signals from the host to one of the downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports, and then on to a HDMI monitor. This also brings out the benefits of the hub scheme - With daisy chaining no longer in the picture for most deployments (each spoke in the hub can still be a daisy chain in Thunderbolt 4), users do not need to worry about the placement of different Thunderbolt peripherals / displays in the chain. Additionally, it allows the peripherals to be disconnected independent of each other - something not possible in the chain topology without interrupting the links to peripherals intended to be kept active.
The number of use-case scenarios for Thunderbolt 4 hubs such as the Plugable TBT4-HUB3C are too many to count. Our performance evaluation is restricted to the configurations specified below. The upstream port of the TBT4-HUB3C is connected to the Thunderbolt 4 port of the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-1165G7 - a risky choice, given that the port is only certified for USB 3.2 Gen 2 / DisplayPort Alternate Mode. The downstream ports were connected as per the list below.
The Thunderbolt Control Center can be use to approve connected devices. All primary connections to the Thunderbolt port (other than the displays and associated routing gear) are visible in it.
Various workload combinations were processed to determine the real-world effects of bandwidth sharing between the peripherals connected to the hub. The DIY Thunderbolt 3 SSD was subject to a fio workload, while the eGPU in the Gaming Station was subject to an OpenCL bandwidth test (transferring data from the host to the device VRAM, and back).
| Plugable Thunderbolt 4 Hub (TBT4-HUB3C) Bandwidth Sharing Analysis (Gbps) |
||||
| Port #1 (DIY TEKQ Rapide Thunderbolt 3 SSD) |
Port #2 (PowerColor Gaming Station eGFX Enclosure) |
Port #3 (Connection to LG34WK95U via Plugable's USBC-HDMI) |
||
| Reads | Writes | Device-to-Host | Host-to-Device | |
| - | - | - | 20.57 | - |
| - | - | 22.11 | - | - |
| - | 19.5 | - | - | - |
| 21.4 | - | - | - | - |
| - | - | 11.44 | 10.98 | - |
| - | 16.2 | 16.74 | - | - |
| 13.7 | - | - | 17.64 | - |
| - | - | - | 13.78 | 14.4 |
| - | - | 22.12 | - | 14.4 |
| - | 14.1 | - | - | 14.4 |
| 23.0 | - | - | - | 14.4 |
| - | - | 8.99 | 9.21 | 14.4 |
| - | 11.0 | 19.14 | - | 14.4 |
| 13.5 | - | - | 12.46 | 14.4 |
It must be noted that the Thunderbolt data rates are bidirectional - logically speaking, we have a 40 Gbps link from the host to the device, and another 40 Gbps link from the device to the host. As part of our experiments, we attempted to activate traffic in pairs - one set with the display routing turned off, and another set with the USBC-HDMI part active.
It can be observed that activating the display output link reduces performance for the host-to-device traffic from 20.57 Gbps to 13.78 Gbps, while total used bandwidth on the host to device side moves up from 20.57 Gbps to 28.5 Gbps. On the return side, the maximum bandwidth seen turned out to be 22.11 Gbps.
Investigation of 5K display outputs from the hub's downstream port, and its bandwidth implications will be covered in future reviews.
The Plugable TBT4-HUB3C brings out the capabilities / advantages of Thunderbolt 4 over previous Thunderbolt versions in an effective and user-friendly manner. The hub functionality brings Thunderbolt and traditional consumer understanding of USB functionality to the same table, and this can only be good for the market as USB4 begins to gain traction.
The TBT4-HUB3C is able to support 40 Gbps in total over the three downstream ports without favoring one port over the other. While we evaluated a number of interesting use-cases involving displays, Thunderbolt SSDs, and eGPUs, the possibilities enabled by the hub are much more varied. With backwards compatibility - we even tested functionality of the device as a USB 2.0 hub when connected to a USB 2.0 port - in the picture, it can be safely said that the hub's functionality is limited only by the features of the upstream host port.
At $174 (after applying a $15 off coupon on the $189 MSRP), the hub presents a great value proposition in this space. Plugable is a bit late to the Thunderbolt 4 market, as other Goshen Ridge solutions have been available in the market for a while now (though supply chain issues have meant that actual availability has been limited). All the Thunderbolt 4 hubs / docks use the quad-port JHL8440 to full effect, enabling one upstream Thunderbolt 4 port, and three downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports. For $230, the CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub tags on additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. Razer has two docks - a 10-port version with a SD card slot, audio jack, an Ethernet port, and three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports for $320, and a RGB version of the same for $330. The Kensington SD5700T priced at $330 is similar to the Razer dock, but with an additional USB-A charging-only port.
The closest competitor to the Plugable TBT4-HUB3C is actually the OWC Thunderbolt Hub that has a similar form-factor and ports layout. It does have a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port in addition for its $179 price point. Despite undercutting the OWC unit by $5, Plugable has managed to include a $20 value addition in the USBC-HDMI adapter. Overall, Plugable has an effective entry-level Thunderbolt 4 product bound to expand market adoption and understanding of the latest Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 ecosystem. We look forward to the company expanding its offerings and create a TBT4 lineup similar to what they currently carry for Thunderbolt 3.
Back in July, we reported that EVGA was teasing its first AMD-based motherboard since the AM2+ days. Fast forward to now, and that dream of an EVGA model for AMD's Ryzen processors led by in-house engineer and extreme overclocker Vince 'KINGPIN' Lucido is now a reality. The EVGA X570 Dark benefits from a large premium 17-phase power delivery (14+2+1) designed for pushing Ryzen 5000 to its limits and support for up to DDR4-4800 out of the box across two memory slots to minimize latency.
The EVGA X570 Dark, as expected, is primarily suited to extreme overclockers, with a variety of performance-enhancing features across the large E-ATX sized PCB. One of the most notable design characteristics includes a transposed AM4 CPU socket for better support when mounting an LN2 (liquid nitrogen) pot, and an empty CPU socket area to minimize risks when insulating for sub-ambient cooling. All the major power connectors are also at right angles, to be less of an issue when extreme overclocking for records.
EVGA uses a 16-phase power delivery organized into a 14+2 configuration, with fourteen premium 90 A power stages for the CPU section. It's a slightly different design to accommodate the transposed socket as it stretches around the bottom of the AM4 socket. It is using active VRM cooling with two cooling fans and uses a 10-layer PCB design. The 17th power stage is for the memory. Providing power to the CPU is a pair of 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs. Some of the most notable features of the EVGA X570 Dark include voltage monitoring points at the top of the board, as well as a variety of switches to enable/disable features that might be critical to sub-zero overclocking stability.
For end-users wanting to have a daily system, there are dual PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays, as well as 2.5 GbE wired and Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking. Looking at PCIe support, EVGA includes two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x16 and x8/x8, with a half-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. Other features include a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec backed by EVGA's NU audio solution, eight 4-pin cooling headers, a passively cooled chipset heatsink, and two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port on the rear panel.
The EVGA X570 Dark is currently available to purchase directly from the EVGA website for $690. This isn't a cheap motherboard, but overclocking-focused motherboards such as this come at a hefty premium. Although it has plenty of features for a daily Ryzen 5000 based system, the hope is that it provides the substance for extreme overclockers looking to push Ryzen 5000 silicon to its limits.
Our review of the EVGA X570 Dark will be coming very soon - it arrived a couple of days ago and is currently on our testbed!
Rapid advancements in flash technology and continued improvements in high-speed interfaces have driven the growth of small, bus-powered portable SSDs. Kingston introduced the DataTraveler Max in August 2021 as a USB-C flash drive capable (UFD) of hitting 1GBps speeds. Its uniqueness lies in the form-factor. In fact, it is the first device in a thumb drive form-factor to hit such performance numbers. These numbers are achieved while keeping the UFD light enough to sport an integrated USB-C male connector. Read on for our analysis of the drive's performance and a detailed look at the technology enabling this unique product.
Western Digital is unveiling its latest addition to the WD Blue family today - the SN570 NVMe SSD. A DRAM-less PCIe 3.0 x4 drive, it brings in performance improvements over the current lead product in the line - the SN550. In order to better appeal to the content creators market, WD is also bundling a free month of membership to Adobe Creative Cloud.
Similar to the SN550, the SN570 is also available in three capacities - 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. All drives are single-sided, come with a 5-year warranty, and carry a 0.3 DWPD rating. The key performance improvement over the SN550 is the increase in sequential read speeds from 2400 MBps to 3500 MBps. Though Western Digital wouldn't officially confirm, we believe this is likely due to the move from BiCS 4 96L 3D TLC to BiCS 5 112L 3D TLC. We did obtain confirmation that these drives are set to be equipped with 3D TLC over their complete lifetime, and will not move to QLC.
| Western Digital SN570 SSD Specifications | |||
| Capacity | 250 GB | 500 GB | 1 TB |
| Controller | WD In-House? | ||
| NAND Flash | Western Digital / Kioxia BiCS 5 112L 3D TLC NAND? | ||
| Form-Factor, Interface | Single-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 | ||
| Sequential Read | 3300 MB/s | 3500 MB/s | |
| Sequential Write | 1200 MB/s | 2300 MB/s | 3000 MB/s |
| Random Read IOPS | 190K | 360K | 460K |
| Random Write IOPS | 210K | 390K | 450K |
| SLC Caching | Yes | ||
| TCG Opal Encryption | No | ||
| Warranty | 5 years | ||
| Write Endurance | 150 TBW 0.3 DWPD |
300 TBW 0.3 DWPD |
600 TBW 0.3 DWPD |
| MSRP | $50 (20¢/GB) | $60 (12¢/GB) | $110 (11¢/GB) |
The WD Blue series started getting credible competition in the entry-level DRAM-less NVMe SSD space recently from Samsung's 980 series. Using 128L V-NAND technology with higher flash speeds, Samsung was able to advertise better sequential performance numbers that the WD Blue. Our review did find the original SN550 holding up better for heavier workloads, but the advertised numbers are hard to dismiss for the average consumer. The new SN570 should solve that problem for WD. On the other hand, Samsung enables TCG Opal support in the 980, while WD opts not to enable it for the Blue series.
In terms of pricing, the SN570 matches the 980 (at least at the 250GB capacity point). Assuming that the SN570 can match the SN550's performance for real-world workloads, the Adobe Creative Cloud value-add might just tilt the choice in its favor - at least for the content creators market. We are yet to receive the final datasheet, and the table above will be updated once we have additional details.
ASRock Rack has listed a new motherboard on its website supporting AMD's latest Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3000WX series of processors. The ASRock Rack WRX80D8-2T is currently under 'preliminary' status and features eight memory slots, seven full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, as well as twelve SATA ports and support for two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives. It also includes dual 10 GbE and is supported by an ASPEED BMC controller with a dedicated management LAN port and D-sub video output.
In terms of design, the ASRock Rack WRX80D8-2T follows a basic green design with blue memory slots and black PCIe slots, and power connectors. Surrounding a transposed sTRX4 (WRX80) socket is eight memory slots with support up to 2TB of capacity, with ECC and non-ECC UDIMM, RDIMM, LRDIMM, and RDIMM3DS memory types supported. Providing power to the motherboard is a 24-pin 12 V ATX power input, while CPU power comes from a pair of 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs, all of which are located in the top right-hand corner.
Dominating the lower half of the board are seven full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, which are designed to maximize 112 of the supported 120 PCIe lanes from the Zen 2 based Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3000WX processors. Focusing on storage, the WRX80D8-2T has support for twelve SATA ports from the WRX80 chipset with two OCuLink ports, including four regular 7-pin SATA ports. Users can add U.2 storage with two OCuLink ports at PCIe 4.0 x4 or use these for an additional four SATA ports apiece. Other storage options include two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots with support for form factors up to 22110 M.2. Cooling options consist of seven 6-pin fan headers.
On the rear panel are two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, with a dedicated Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit management LAN port and D-Sub video output powered by an ASPEED AST2500 BMC controller, which adds IPMI support. Users looking to add more USB ports can do so via front panel headers, including one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C header and one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A header for an additional two ports. Networking includes two RJ45 ports, which an Intel X550-AT2 10 GbE controller powers. Finishing off the rear panel is a Serial port, and a small UID identification LED button.
At the time of writing, we don't have any information on either the pricing or availability of the ASRock Rack WRX80D8-2T.
Source: ASRock Rack
Tomorrow, Microsoft is officially launching Windows 11, the next installment of their operating system which underpins the majority of PCs in use today. Windows 10 has an install base of over 1 billion devices, and Windows 11 comes into existence in a much different place than its predecessor. After the much-maligned Windows 8 there was a sense of urgency and necessity which ushered Windows 10 into the world. Windows 11, on the other hand, comes into a market where most people are happy with Windows 10. So it raises the question: Why now?
Microsoft’s Surface team has produced some amazing designs over the years, taking to focusing on convertible devices to highlight the adaptability of Windows. That being said, over the last several years the design team has been largely held in check, as Microsoft has opted to focus on further refining their convertible designs. Thankfully, for 2021 the team is back to innovation as well as refinement with their latest device, the Surface Laptop Studio. With its dynamic woven hinge, the Laptop Studio is a true convertible device, as well as the spiritual successor to the now-defunct Surface Book.
It’s hard not to notice that we’re in the middle of a semiconductor crunch right now. Factories are running at full steam, but pinch points in the supply chain are causing chaos and bottlenecks – whether that means not enough packaging materials, the cost of shipping has increased 10x, or additional tariffs, it’s causing various industries that rely on semiconductors to wait for supply and then pay over expected prices. Nonetheless, everything that is made is being sold, and so all of the big foundries are driving more investment into their supply chain ecosystem as well as raw manufacturing, and Samsung is no different.
Despite most discussion about chip manufacturing focusing on the leading edge and blazingly fast and complex side of the industry, the demand for the ‘legacy’ process technologies is also higher than ever, but also by volume a lot bigger than the latest and greatest. These legacy processes form the backbone of most modern electronics, and so being able to offer equivalent technology at lower cost/power is often a win-win for manufacturers and chip designers alike. To that end, Samsung is announcing a new 17nm process node, designed for customers still using a planar 28nm process, but want to take advantage of 14nm FinFET technology.
Quite a few of the motherboards we have reviewed over the last month have been aimed at enthusiasts with a penchant for extreme overclocking. Today's review focuses on the EVGA X570 Dark that is more than the usual desktop AM4 motherboard. It's EVGA's first entry into the market for AMD's Ryzen processors, focusing on performance and overclocking more than most other X570/X570S boards currently available. Some of the EVGA X570 Dark's most notable features include two memory slots with support for DDR4-4800, dual PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2, eight SATA, dual 2.5 GbE, and support for Wi-Fi 6. Is EVGA, which had previously been an Intel and NVIDIA only deal until now, enough to tempt you to the 'DARK' side? Time to take a look and see if the X570 Dark has enough about it to justify the combination of an unconventional design and premium price tag.
Western Digital introduced the SanDisk Professional branding in May 2021 for its G-Technology products targeting the content-capture market. The company has taken the opportunity to update some of the hardware in the process of transitioning from G-Technology to the new branding. The G-DRIVE family represents the lineup of single-disk direct-attached storage units from SanDisk Professional. Today's review takes a look at the G-DRIVE SSD and G-DRIVE ArmorLock SSD - two bus-powered portable SSDs with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface that target very different use-cases.
Today we're taking our first look at German manufacturer Be Quiet's all-in-one (AIO) CPU liquid coolers, with a review of their Pure Loop 280mm cooler. True to their design ethos, Be Quiet! has built the Pure Loop to operate with as little noise as is reasonably possible, making for a record-quiet cooler that also hits a great balance between overall performance, an elegant appearance, and price.
Getting the most out of Intel's Core i9-11900K primarily relies on two main factors: premium cooling for the chip itself, and a solid motherboard acting as the foundation. And while motherboard manufacturers such as EVGA can't do anything about the former, they have quite a bit of experience with the latter.
Today we're taking a look at EVGA's Z590 Dark motherboard, which is putting EVGA's experience to the test as one of a small handful of LGA1200 motherboards geared for extreme overclocking. A niche market within a niche market, few people really have the need (or the means) to overclock a processor within an inch of its life. But for those that do, EVGA has developed a well-earned reputation with its Dark series boards for pulling out all of the stops in helping overclockers get the most out of their chips. And even for the rest of us who will never see a Rocket Lake chip pass 6GHz, it's interesting to see just what it takes with regards to motherboard design and construction to get the job done.
Following last month’s announcement event of Apple’s newest iPhone and iPad line-ups, today we’re seeing Apple hold its second fall event, where we expect the company to talk about all new things Mac. Last year’s event was a historic one, with Apple introducing the M1 chip and new powered Mac devices, marking the company’s move away from x86 chips from Intel, taking instead their own future in their hands with their own custom Arm silicon. This year, we’re expecting more chips and more devices, with even more performance to be release. Stay tuned as we cover tonight’s show.
Having very recently reviewed the Matebook X Pro 2021 (13.9-inch), our local PR in the UK offered me a last-minute chance to examine the newest element to their laptop portfolio. The Huawei MateBook 16, on paper at least, comes across as a workhorse machine designed for office and on the go. A powerful CPU that can go into a high-performance mode when plugged in, and sip power when it needs to. No discrete graphics to get in the way, and a massive 84 Wh battery is designed for an all-day workflow. It comes with a color-accurate large 3:2 display, and with direct screen share with a Huawei smartphone/tablet/monitor, it means if you buy into the ecosystem there’s a lot of potential. The question remains – is it any good?
Officially announced at Computex 2021, AMD and its vendors unveiled a new series of AM4 based motherboards for Ryzen 5000 processors. The new X570S chipset is, really, not that different from the previous version launched back in 2019 from a technical standpoint. The main user difference is that all of the X570S models now feature a passively cooled chipset. Some vendors have opted to either refresh existing models, or others are releasing completely new variants, such as the ASRock X570S PG Riptide we are reviewing today. Aimed at the entry-level extreme chipset, the X570S PG Riptide features a Killer-based 2.5 GbE controller, dual PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, and support for up to 128 GB of DDR4-5000.
Last week, Apple had unveiled their new generation MacBook Pro laptop series, a new range of flagship devices that bring with them significant updates to the company’s professional and power-user oriented user-base. The new devices particularly differentiate themselves in that they’re now powered by two new additional entries in Apple’s own silicon line-up, the M1 Pro and the M1 Max. We’ve covered the initial reveal in last week’s overview article of the two new chips, and today we’re getting the first glimpses of the performance we’re expected to see off the new silicon.
Kingston had previewed their 2021 flagship PCIe 4.0 x 4 M.2 NVMe SSD (codename "Ghost Tree") at CES earlier this year. Not much was divulged other than the use of the Phison E18 controller at that time. The product is hitting retail shelves today as the KC3000. The M.2 2280 SSD will be available in four capacities ranging from 512GB to 4TB. Kingston also provided us with detailed specifications.
| Kingston KC3000 SSD Specifications | ||||
| Capacity | 512 GB | 1024 GB | 2048 GB | 4096 GB |
| Controller | Phison E18 | |||
| NAND Flash | Micron 176L 3D TLC NAND | |||
| Form-Factor, Interface | Single-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 | Double-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 | ||
| DRAM | 512 MB DDR4 | 1 GB DDR4 | 2 GB DDR4 | 4 GB DDR4 |
| Sequential Read | 7000 MB/s | |||
| Sequential Write | 3900 MB/s | 6000 MB/s | 7000 MB/s | |
| Random Read IOPS | 450K | 900K | 1M | |
| Random Write IOPS | 900K | 1M | ||
| Avg. Power Consumption | 0.34 W | 0.33 W | 0.36 W | |
| Max. Power Consumption | 2.7 W (R) 4.1 W (W) |
2.8 W (R) 6.3 W (W) |
2.8 W (R) 9.9 W (W) |
2.7 W (R) 10.2 W (W) |
| SLC Caching | Yes | |||
| TCG Opal Encryption | No | |||
| Warranty | 5 years | |||
| Write Endurance | 400 TBW 0.44 DWPD |
800 TBW 0.44 DWPD |
1600 TBW 0.44 DWPD |
3200 TBW 0.44 DWPD |
| MSRP | ? (?¢/GB) | ? (?¢/GB) | ? (?¢/GB) | ? (?¢/GB) |
SSDs based on Phison's E18 controller have been entering the market steadily over the last few months. While early ones like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and Mushkin Gamma Gen 4 came with Micron's 96L flash, the newer ones such as the Corsair MP600 PRO XT and the Kingston's KC3000 are using 176L NAND. The KC3000's 0.44 DWPD endurance rating slightly edges ahead of the MP600 PRO XT's 0.38 DWPD despite similar component choices. Claimed performance numbers are similar to ones achieved by other E18 SSDs with similar NAND configuration - 7GBps for sequential accesses, and up to 1M IOPS for random accesses. The thermal solution involves an overlaid graphene aluminum heat-spreader that still keeps the thickness down to 2.21mm for the single-sided SKUs, and 3.5mm for the double-sided ones. On the power consumption side, the 4TB version can consume as much as 10.2W. On the positive side, all SKUs support a 5mW deep sleep mode.
Kingston is targeting the KC3000 towards both desktops and notebooks. Primary storage-intensive use-cases include 3D rendering and 4K content creation. In this market, the drive is going up against established competition like the Samsung 980 PRO, and Western Digital's SN850. Both of these SSDs have lower endurance numbers and don't have 4TB options, giving the KC3000 an edge for consumers looking at those aspects specifically.
The market for portable SSDs has expanded significantly over the past few years. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) becoming the de-facto standard for USB ports even in entry-level systems, external storage devices using the interface have flooded the market.
OWC has established itself as vendor of computing peripherals and upgrade components (primarily for the Apple market) over the last 30 years. Their portable SSDs lineup, under the Envoy brand, includes both Thunderbolt and USB-C offerings. The Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3 and the Envoy Pro EX USB-C coupled leading performance numbers with a sleek and stylish industrial design. Late last year, the company introduced the OWC Envoy Pro Elektron - a portable flash drive similar to the Envoy Pro EX USB-C in performance, albeit in a much smaller form-factor.
Read on for our hands-on review of the Envoy Pro Elektron to check out how it fares in our updated test suite for direct-attached storage devices.
To support the launch of Intel's latest 12th generation 'Alder Lake' processors, Intel has also pulled the trigger on its latest Z690 motherboard chipset. Using a new LGA1700 socket, some of the most significant advancements with Alder Lake and Z690 include PCIe 5.0 support from the processor, as well as a PCIe 4.0 x8 link from the processor to the chipset. In this article, we're taking a closer look at over 50+ different DDR5 enabled motherboards designed to not only use the processing power of Alder Lake but offer users a myriad of high-class and premium features.
Flash-based portable drives have become popular fast storage options for both content creators and backups-seeking consumers. The advent of high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) along with Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps) have enabled rapid improvements in performance of such portable SSDs over the last few years. While the higher-speed variants have traditionally been premium devices, a push towards lower priced drives was kickstarted by the introduction of native USB flash drive (UFD) controllers. Today, we are taking a look at the performance and value proposition of the complete Kingston XS2000 portable SSD lineup based on the Silicon Motion SM2320 controller.
Every once in a while, a startup comes along with something out of left field. In the AI hardware generation, Cerebras holds that title, with their Wafer Scale Engine. The second generation product, built on TSMC 7nm, is a full wafer packed to the brim with cores, memory, and performance. By using patented manufacturing and packaging techniques, a Cerebras CS-2 features a single chip, bigger than your head, with 2.6 trillion transistors. The cost for a CS-2, with appropriate cooling, power, and connectivity, is ‘a few million’ we are told, and Cerebras has customers that include research, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and defense – all after the unique proposition that a wafer scale AI engine provides. Today’s news is that Cerebras is still in full startup mode, finishing a Series F funding round.
Mountain is a brand that you probably never heard of before in the gaming peripherals industry. The company was founded just a couple of years ago and they currently market only a handful of products. Despite their newcommer status, Mountain went reaching for the top with their first product releases. In today's review, we are taking a look at their mechanical keyboard, the Everest Max, a product designed to rival the best keyboards ever released.
To support the launch of Intel's latest 12th generation 'Alder Lake' processors, Intel has also pulled the trigger on its latest Z690 motherboard chipset. Using a new LGA1700 socket, some of the most significant advancements with Alder Lake and Z690 include PCIe 5.0 support from the processor, as well as a PCIe 4.0 x8 link from the processor to the chipset. In this article, we're taking a closer look at over 30+ different DDR4 enabled motherboards designed to not only use the processing power of Alder Lake but offer users a myriad of high-class and premium features.
In today’s review we are taking a look at a passively cooled power supply, the SilverStone Nightjar NJ700. Despite the lack of active cooling, the NJ700 can continuously output up to 700 Watts, underscoring its very high efficiency as well as the rest of its impressive electrical specifications. Thanks to it's impeccable design and component selection – courtesy of OEM SeaSonic – the overall performance of the Nightjar NJ700 is world-class, making it more than a match for the even the vast majority of actively cooled 700W PSUs on the market today. Just don't expect one of the best PSUs we've ever reviewed to come cheaply.
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