Tech News
-
Happy New Year from Hardware Asylum
Published: Wednesday, January 1, 2020 | By: DennisSo, funny story
Back in the early days of Hardware Asylum which can be best said as “When Hardware Asylum as actually Ninjalane” I would do a short holiday post. For the fourth of July I might do a digit check to ensure everyone had all their fingers and toes and for Christmas and New Years I might congratulate fellow hardware enthusiasts on another successful year of great computer building.
I would have to look but, I’m pretty sure I haven’t done that since Hardware Asylum launched and I’m feeling pretty bad about that. No sense of community, no giving back and I’d like to change that.
Welcome to 2020, I hope this year serves you well and, if you voted for Pedro, all your dreams will come true.
I have CES 2020 coming up and will be in Vegas for a few days checking out the new tech. After that I’ll be recording the January Hardware Asylum Podcast and I’ll be publishing a new “State of the Hardware Asylum Address 2020” that none of you will want to miss.
Happy New Year from all of us at Hardware Asylum
-
VIPER GAMING by PATRIOT Unleashes VPR100 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 RGB Solid State Drive
Published: Monday, December 9, 2019 | By: DennisFREMONT, CALIFORNIA — Dec. 5th, 2019 — VIPER GAMING by PATRIOT, a trademarked brand of PATRIOT and a global leader in performance memory, solid state drives, and flash storage solutions, is pleased to announce the official launch of the VPR100. The new m.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 RGB solid state drive offers capacities available from 256GB up to 2TB. The VPR100 is targeted to deliver uncompromising speed and performance for intense gaming, overclocking, video content creating, and 3D rendering. Built with the latest Phison E12 PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe controller to bring out lightning-fast sequential Read and Write speeds and OS start-up time. The VPR100 utilizes a low-profile aluminum heatshield that not only dissipates performance-robbing heat but also brilliantly highlights the on-board LEDs making the VPR100 an eye-catching centerpiece of any PC build.
The VPR100 is the first PCIe m.2 SSD that offers users to customize their RGB illumination through the user-friendly VIPER RGB app 2.1 application. The software equipped with up to five customizable lighting profiles along with eight pre-programmed RGB lighting patterns, including viper, heartbeat, breathing, and more. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for the user to select from the entire RGB spectrum and lighting patterns to match their gaming setup.
The VPR100 RGB SSD is fully compatible with the many sync software on the market today, including ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and ASRock Polychrome Sync giving users the ultimate RGB control.
SSD Read and Write speeds are essential metrics when choosing a performance-based NVMe m.2 SSD especially when the system is subjected to heavy workloads like intensive gaming or UHD video editing. The VPR100 offers better performance over traditional non-PCIe storage products and is considerably more compact. The VPR100 delivers exceptional sequential Read and Write performance with up to 3,300 MB/s Read speed on 1TB/2TB model and 2,900MB/s Write speed. The drive provides 4K random-read IOPs up to 700K and random-write IOPs up to 650K on the 1TB/2TB model for exceptional throughput. Performance is enhanced thanks to the structure of the Intelligent SLC (Single Level Cell) caching algorithm, ensuring that data is handled quick and efficient.
The VPR100 is built with best-in-class components on a 10-layer PCB board for ensuring the best signal integration and excellent stability and an External Thermal Sensor to monitor internal temperatures of the drive and prevent the risk of overheating. It aims to reduce performance degradation and extends the life of the drive. The VPR100 is built with a military-grade aluminum heatshield with a unique alloy design to provide excellent thermal dissipation. -
SiSoftware Sandra 20/20 (2020) SP1a Released
Published: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 | By: DennisUpdate November 25th: Released patch (version 30.24) to add further hardware and software support.
Update October 24th: Released patch (version 30.21) to corrrect Windows 7 / Server 2008/R2 run-time issues.
We are pleased to release SP1a (version 30.24) update for 20/20 (2020) with the following updates:
Sandra 20/20 (2020) Press Release
Hardware Support:
- AMD Ryzen2 (series 3000 Matisse), Stoney Ridge updated support
- Intel Cascade Lake (CSL), Comet Lake (CML), Cannon Lake (CNL), Ice Lake (ICL) updated support
CPU Benchmarks:
- Tools (Visual C++ compiler 2019) Update
GPGPU Benchmarks:
- CUDA: Updated SDK 10.2/10.1
- OpenCL: Updated SDK support
-
EK-Meltemi 120ER Fan @ TechPowerUp
Published: Tuesday, November 26, 2019 | By: DennisSo, there are fans and then there are FANS. While they both "blow" there is a difference between the two. One one hand you have a fan that any YouTube channel will love, they can put paper strips on the fan and show that it moves air from one location to another.
On the other hand you have FANS, these are manly fans, no offence to womenly fans as some of them can be just as powerful and loud however, we need fans with blemishes and big blades and who are not afraid to get their gears wet or call each other dude and kiss the fins of a finely crafted radiator for a lifetime of servatude.
We are talking, of course, about the EK Meltemi. Or as the name suggests a fine wine you have at the race track.
EK Water Blocks adds to their fan portfolio with the massive 38 mm thick Meltemi. Available in their -ER (extended range) version, the EK-Meltemi aims to take their popular Vardar fan as a base and build upon it with a bigger, badder motor, and promises high static pressure optimization for PC DIY water cooling.
All jokes aside, this fan is pretty darn impressive BUT..
I have seen better.
-
EK-Classic InWin 303EK Available for Pre-Order
Published: Tuesday, November 26, 2019 | By: DennisFirst we have case manufactures building heatsinks and AIO coolers. Then we have video card makers releasing power supplies and memory and now we have a watercooling company (one of the largest in the world) releasing a custom case from InWin complete with a distro plate.
For those of you who don't know, a distribution plate is a fancy name for a watercooling manifold that becomes a decorative part to your casemod and often replaces, or enhances, the reservoir you normally have. For many this helps to clean up the build and give "builders" an easy excuse for why they aren't "modding"
The EK-Classic InWin 303EK case is a unique version of the popular In Win 303 case. It features an integrated distribution plate and this makes it really special as there is no similar product on the market. This is the only mass-produced case that is specifically re-designed and modified to seamlessly integrate the coolant distribution plate equipped with a powerful DDC pump. The 303 is one of InWin’s most popular cases which has been on the market for quite a while now. It is a tested, market-proven case with interesting fan and radiator layout options. The 303EK version brings this a new level, wherewith the purchase of the case, the customer will get a fully integrated coolant reservoir and a pump in the form of a distribution plate.
Look for it on the EK Web Shop for a little over 300 bones.
-
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Slim @ LanOC Reviews
Published: Tuesday, November 26, 2019 | By: DennisCall me old school but I still think cooler reviews are relevant and that people looking to build a PC should venture out and read what other people are saying instead of picking the Hyper 212 cause some reddit friend put it into their PC Parts Picker shopping list.
By now most of you know of the company Be Quiet! and their heatsinks, fans, and power supplies. Early on when they first came to the US market they were involved in our LANs as a sponsor and we have covered a few of their heatsinks in the past. But they have grown in popularity a lot in the heatsink market especially with their all-black styling, quiet fans, and good performance. Especially with a few of their heatsinks in the SFF community and with their high-end heatsinks for those of you dedicated for the best possible cooling performance without the downsides of All in One coolers like pump noise and the potential for leaks. Well I have had their Dark Rock Slim sitting around the office and as I clean things out for the end of the year I didn’t want to miss checking it out. It is designed for those of you who need a thinner cooler for memory, motherboard, and case clearance reasons. Today I’m going check it out and see how it compares to a few other 120mm air coolers.
I am still going to go on record and say the mounting hardware from Be Quiet is one of the worse on the market EVER and that is a very LONG list to sample from.
Be sure to check out our review of the Be Quiet Shadow Rock Slim that we did back in 2014. Its not bad.
-
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Review @ Vortez
Published: Monday, November 25, 2019 | By: DennisWhen Threadripper first launched I told myself I wouldn’t get all sappy and get one just because. Well, fast forward several years and you have a guy who will be buying one just to see what all the fuss is about.
And check out some of the super sweet motherboards that are being built for the platform.
Third Generation Threadripper is based the Zen 2 architecture found in both EPYC ROME enterprise CPUs and desktop Ryzen chips. It’s a significant departure from the Zen+ architecture of Threadripper 2000-series CPUs, and is manufactured in a chiplet fashion utilising 7nm lithography. This allows them to cram in even more active cores running at higher operating frequencies than equivalent Zen+ models, pushing the bounds of performance outwards yet again.
I am still a firm believer that the only reason Threadripper exists is to get YouTube'ers all juicy and the prospect of performance and views while AMDs true reason is to show what their cores can do since at the lowest level they are pretty darn slow.
Yes I am talking about threaded performance not the collective performance of a BUNCH of threads.
BTW, the Vortez editor must have been sleeping when they sent out the press release. OR figured that nobody would post it cause:google. Basically I'm saying sorry for the misspelling.
-
Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition Review @ Vortez
Published: Monday, November 25, 2019 | By: DennisI do enjoy the new approach that Intel has been taking with their HEDT processors mostly in that how we get a processor refresh that will work on the motherboard we already bought. Case in point X299 was launched to handle Skylake-X and now we can use that same board for Cascade Lake-X.
While Cascade Lake-X incorporates some Intel-exclusive features such as native AVX-512 and Optane memory support, a key factor in the platform update is a comprehensive repositioning of per core pricing. It’s no exaggeration to say that Intel have halved their price per core in the space of a generation, making their Core-X lineup extremely attractive compared to just one year ago.
Funny side note, Cascade Lake is located in my home state of Idaho. It isn't really a lake but is a popular recreation spot for folks that cannot afford to go to a real location.
Assuming I get a Cascade Lake processor I will be sure to take a picture of the processor with the lake AND if one dies I will be sure to drop it in the middle.
-
GIGABYTE 2080 Super Gaming OC Waterforce - Coolest Card
Published: Monday, November 18, 2019 | By: DennisTaipei, Taiwan, November 15th, 2019 – GIGABYTE, the world’s leading premium water-cooled graphics card manufacturer, today announced the GIGABYTE WATERFORCE graphics cards - GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ GAMING OC WATERFORCE WB 8G powered by the NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPERTM GPU. Whether users are looking to fulfill the demands of their high-end water-cooled systems, or to enjoy the benefits of water-cooled GPU and CPUs, GIGABYTE WATERFORCE graphics card is the best choice. WATERFORCE WB graphics card is equipped with a top-of-the-line overclocked GPU certified by GIGABYTE GPU Gauntlet™ sorting technology. It provides an all-around cooling solution for all key components of the graphics card. It takes care of not only the GPU but also VRAM and MOSFET to ensure stable overclock operation and longer durability. In addition, with excellent RGB lighting effects, protection metal back plate, Ultra-Durable top-grade materials and extended warranty for registered members, etc.,
GIGABYTE WATERFORCE WB graphics card is the best choice for top players to pursue both quiet operation and performance. In order to match the increasing number of high-end water-cooled motherboards on the market, GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPERTM GAMING OC WATERFORCE WB 8G is the best choice for graphics cards. Just invest a little more than the GAMING OC air-cooled version and you can enjoy the water cooling benefits for the GPU and CPU. GIGABYTE offers top-of-the-line overclocked GPUs, an optimized water-loop design, factory-assembled professional quality, and excellent RGB lighting effects with the most important features of the official warranty, allowing players to enjoy high quality without any worries. For traditional graphics cards, not only does replacing the water cooling kit void the graphics card warranty but there’s also no guarantee that the graphics cards are compatible with 3rd-party customized water blocks. The professional design of a GIGABYTE water block can quickly remove heat generated by the GPU, VRAM and MOSFET, keeping the graphics card cool and stable even when aggressively overclocked.
We want you to experience the best service you have ever had. This is why on top of our standard 3-year warranty, we would like to offer you an additional 1 year of protection to your graphics card free of charge. You can enjoy a 4-year warranty by registering on the website within 30 days of purchase.
-
Intel Core i9-9900KS @ TechPowerUp
Published: Sunday, November 17, 2019 | By: DennisI've been really curious about this processor since it was announced. Sadly, Intel wasn't nice enough to send me a sample so I'll likely have to hit the retail channels if I want to take the KS for a spin.
Thing is the processor isn't much different from the Core i9 9900K, Sure, with the KS you get a full processor turbo of 5Ghz but, you can get that from a stock 9900k and if you are lucky you can dial the CPU up even more. For instance the Core i9 9900k I have runs 6Ghz on LN2 (which is bad) but will run 5.3Ghz on water all day long.
I did check out the TechPowerUp review and W1zzard could only get 5.2Ghz out of his proc which could be one of a number of things including Bad Board, Bad Processor, Bad Chair to Keyboard Interface.
The Core i9-9900KS is Intel's new consumer flagship processor. It runs at 5 GHz boost, no matter how many cores are active, which translates into 10% application performance gained over the 9900K. Gaming performance is improved too, but the pricing is high, especially compared to what AMD is offering.
Based on this review I'm less likely to make the jump to the 9900KS, especially given the $600 USD pricetag. However, I do want to pick up another 9900k([s|f]) at some point and try for another run at 7Ghz.
Decisions, Decisions
