PCHardCores: 2016

Saturday 31 December 2016

Lenovo Ideapad Y900 – Get Serious in 2017

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A game machine also needs a powerful processor. This laptop comes ... With the press of a button, your CPU and GPU get overclocked into high gear.

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Intel Shutters KBL-H, Kaby Lake Refresh Arriving Next Year - 10nm Coffee Lake Platforms, CFL-U ...

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The reason? the Ryzen 8 core processor we saw is just the tip of the iceberg, if you remember there are other Zeppelin based CPUs inbound scaling ...

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AMD Ryzen Can Overclock! 5GHz Single-core Overclock Details And More

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AMD's brand new Ryzen processor that expresses the power and efficiency of the ... Can the Ryzen processors prove to be a game-changer for AMD?

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AMD Ryzen Overclocks! CPCHardware Details '5GHz On Air OC' Tease and More

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... question then becomes what kind of OC you can expect from your Ryzen processor without insane amounts of vcore lowering the life of your CPU.

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Asus smartphone with octa-core CPU, 4850 mAh battery on the way

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The smartphone is powered by an unspecified 1.5 GHz octa-core processor, has a home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor, and runs Android 7.0 ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 release date, specs news: Next-gen mobile processor to launch at ...

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Qualcomm has announced that its next-generation central processing unit (CPU) for mobile devices, the Snapdragon 835, will be launched at the ...

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'AMD Zen' release date, news & updates: AMD expected to be on par with Intel in 2017

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According to Forbes, based on the primary announcements about the device, it seems like it will be on par with Intel's high-end desktop processors.

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AMD Ryzen Will Clock 5 GHz On Just An Air Cooler

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AMD's upcoming Ryzen processor is rumored to hit 5Ghz for the 8 core 16 thread model. This will happen on just an air cooler. This would mean that ...

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AMD is rumoured to be fabricating Ryzen CPUs with both Globalfoundries and Samsung

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AMD is rumoured to be fabricating Ryzen CPUs with both Globalfoundries and Samsung.

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Friday 30 December 2016

Cryorig R1 Ultimate Dual-Tower CPU Cooler Review

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Cooling value brand Cryorig shoots for top performance in a dual 140mm fan, dual-sink CPU cooler. Will the extra performance pay off in value?

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GIGABYTE's New Console: The 'Gaming GT' PC Launched with Core i7-K, GTX1080, TB3

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GIGABYTE has quietly announced its new small form-factor computer designed for performance-minded gamers. The new SFF PC not only packs high-performance components, such as the latest-generation CPU and GPU, but it uses desktop-class components and could be upgradeable.

High-performance PCs in small form-factor are not rare nowadays: various PC makers use mobile CPUs and GPUs to build such systems. Such computers demonstrate high-performance out-of-the-box, but their upgrade strategy is tricky because it is not easy to get MXM GPUs or mobile CPUs in retail. When developing the GIGABYTE Gaming GT desktop (GB-GZ1DTi7-1080-OK-GW and technically this PC belongs to the Brix family), engineers from GIGABYTE wanted to create a product that could use widely available processors and graphics cards and thus potentially offer an upgrade path to the owners.

The GIGABYTE Gaming GT desktop is not really a miniature system: it measures 276×384×128 mm and is approximately 10 liters in volume, which makes it just larger than Sony’s first-generation PlayStation 3. The PC is based on a custom motherboard (210×205 mm) that is a bit larger than Mini-ITX, but is still smaller when compared to microATX or FlexATX. The system uses a dual-chamber design (CPU, DRAM, SSD are located on one side of the PC, graphics card and other 2.5” storage devices are on the other side), but the chambers are not isolated completely because they use the same airflows generated by two system fans (we do not know how large they are, but theoretically they may be of 90 mm in diameter). It is noteworthy that the PC has an automated exhaust system that opens up exhaust flippers at the top of the computer when it needs to cool down the components.

The chassis can accommodate any double wide graphics card with a maximum size of 280 mm in length and 41 mm in depth, but nothing too custom with regards heatpipes and backplates because the space is constrained. GIGABYTE will ship the Gaming GT desktop with its own GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8 GB card, but they say the key thing is that it can be updated later. Since the card faces downwards, it has to use custom cables (bundled) to connect to displays. Audio and Ethernet cables also have to be angled, but at least it is not a big problem to find such cables in retail. On the bright side of things, the Gaming GT desktop uses a 400 W FlexATX PSU, which could be upgraded if needed.

GIGABYTE Gaming GT Spefications
	GB-GZ1DTi7-1080-OK-GW
CPU	Intel Core i7-6700K Quad Core with HT 4.0 GHz/4.2 GHz 91 W
PCH	Intel Z170
Graphics	GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8 GB GDDR5X 2560 stream processors 160 texture units 64 raster operations pipelines
Memory	32 GB of DDR4 (2×16 GB DDR4)
Storage	240 GB SSD (PCIe/SATA?) 1 TB 2.5" HDD (7200 RPM) 1×2.5" bay for HDD/SSD (SATA)
Wi-Fi	Intel 1×1 Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165NGW 802.11ac + BT
Ethernet	Rivet Networks Killer E2400 Gigabit LAN
Display Outputs	1 × DVI-D DL 1 × HDMI 2.0b 1 × HDMI 1.4 (uses iGPU) 3 × DisplayPort 1.4
Audio	5.1-channel audio Realtek ALC1150 codec TI Burr Brown OPA2134 operational amplifier
USB	5 × USB 3.0 Type-A (5 Gbps) 1 × USB 3.1 Type-A (10 Gbps) 1 × Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Type-C (10 Gbps)
Other I/O	-
Dimensions	276 mm × 384 mm × 128 mm 10.86 × 15.11 × 5 inches
PSU	FlexATX 400 W
OS	Windows 10 Home

The custom motherboard of the GIGABYTE Gaming GT PC is based on the Intel Z170 PCH and thus supports all LGA1151 processors, including the upcoming Kaby Lake chips. The manufacturer will ship the system with the Intel Core i7-6700K CPU (so, overlocking seems to be possible, but keep in mind temperatures and noise), but eventually the chip might be switched to something more powerful.

The GIGABYTE Gaming GT PC will come with 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, a 240 GB SSD (M.2 form-factor, but no word on performance), a 1 TB HDD with a 7200 RPM spindle speed and an additional 2.5” bay for an extra drive. For those, who are not satisfied with an M.2 SSD and two 2.5” HDDs/SSDs, GIGABYTE even installed one Thunderbolt 3 port to connect external high-performance storage devices or special-purpose hardware. When it comes to other I/O, then the Gaming GT desktop offers a dual-band 1×1 802.11ac + BT 4.2 wireless module, Gigabit Ethernet (Killer E2400), five USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB 3.1 Type-A (10 Gbps) port, 5.1-channel audio (the Realtek ALC1150 with the TI Burr Brown OPA2134 amplifier) and so on.

Finally, to give its Gaming GT system a distinctive look, GIGABYTE installed a series of RGB LEDs on top of it. The LEDs can work in different modes and can be controlled using the company’s Ambient LED application.

Pricing and availability dates for the GIGABYTE Gaming GT SFF PCs were not available at press time. Keep in mind that actual configuration of the PC will differ based on the regions, which means that their prices will vary as well. Chances are we'll see it at CES next week.

Gallery: GIGABYTE Announces Brix Gaming GT SFF PC: Core i7-6700K, GeForce GTX 1080, TB3

Elitegroup showing new PC LIVA Z family at CES

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The LIVA Z below is a bit more interesting, with an Apollo Lake processor ... and movies without interference of noise while running your computer.

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MSI Cubi 2 Kaby Lake UCFF PC Review

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The Kaby Lake-U (KBL-U)series with 15W TDP CPUs was introduced along with the 4.5W Kaby Lake-Y ones in Q3 2014. The first set of products with Kaby Lake-U were ultrabooks. However, ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs were not long behind. There are already three vendors in the market with Kaby Lake UCFF PCs - ASRock (Beebox-S), GIGABYTE (BRIX), and MSI (Cubi 2). MSI was the first to launch KBL-U UCFF PCs in the North American market. Read on for our evaluation of the Cubi2-005B and how it compares against UCFF PCs from the last couple of generations.

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Rumor: Unlocked Core i3 CPU will be late to the Kaby Lake party

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We're enthusiastic about the prospect of an unlocked Core i3 processor here at TR. We've long felt that higher clocks are superior to more cores for ...

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E Fun Nextbook Flexx 12 Flip tablet features Kaby Lake CPU, FHD display

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While the company doesn't specify which Kaby Lake CPU is in the tablet, ... there are certainly some 12 inch tablets with more powerful processors.

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Thermaltake Adds RGB Lighting to Toughpower Grand Gold PSUs

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Thermaltake has introduced a new lineup of high-end PSUs featuring RGB lighting. The new Toughpower Grand RGB Gold power supplies are equipped with 256 colors 'Riing' RGB fan, featuring five lighting modes as well as all the regular attributes of advanced PSUs, including a modular design, flat black cables, a "smart" fan, as well as a 10-year warranty.

The Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold lineup of PSUs are compliant with the ATX 12V v2.4 and EPS v2.92 specifications, carry the 80 Plus Gold spec badge and are designed for full-size desktops/workstations (in fact, the 850 W model even has two 4+4 CPU power connectors and thus can handle dual-socket systems). Like other high-end PSUs, the Toughpower Grand RGB Gold power supplies feature a modular design, Rubycon capacitors (rated for 105°C/221°F), a high amperage single +12V rail design (see the table for details) as well as a 140 mm fan that can shut itself down completely when the load is below 20% (it is possible to keep the fan on at all other times). Thermaltake also indicated that the PSUs feature a very strict voltage regulation circuitry (set for no more than a ±2% variation) with a very low 30 mV ripple noise.

Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold Series Output Specifications
	TPG-650AH3FSG-R		TPG-750AH3FSG-R		TPG-850AH3FSG-R
	Rated	Combined	Rated	Combined	Rated	Combined
+3.3V	22 A	120	22 A	120 W	22 A	120 W
+5V
+12V	54.2 A	650 W	62.5 A	750 W	70.9 A	850 W
-12V	0.3 A	3.6 W	0.3 A	3.6 W	0.3 A	3.6 W
+5Vsb	3 A	15 W	3 A	15 W	3 A	15 W
Total Power	650 W		750 W		850 W

One of the key selling points of the Toughpower Grand RGB Gold is its Riing 14 RGB fan with a hydraulic bearing as well as multiple LEDs that can work in five modes: 256-color RGB cycle, solid red, solid green, solid blue or solid white. The modes can be set using a single button and then the PSU will remember them even after a shutdown.

As for connectivity, the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold PSUs come with four or six 6+2-pin PCIe power plugs for graphics cards (so, the 850 W model can handle three AMD Radeon R9 Fury graphics cards or two highly-custom EVGA Kingpin GPUs that need three power connectors), 9 or 12 SATA power connectors, Molex connectors and 4-pin plugs for floppy drives and other peripherals such as fan controllers. All cables are flat and black.

Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold Series
Connector type	650 W TPG-0650F-R	750 W TPG-0750F-R	850 W TPG-0850F-R
ATX 24 Pin	1
EPS 4+4 Pin	1		2
PCIe 6+2 Pin	4		6
SATA	9		12
4P Molex	4
Floppy	1

The Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold series PSUs are already available from multiple retailers, including Amazon. The top-of-the-range model costs $119, whereas the 650 W and 750 W PSUs cost $89 and $99, respectively. Apart from the Toughpower Grand RGB Gold lineup, Thermaltake is also working on more affordable Smart Pro RGB Bronze PSUs, which are expected to hit the market in 2017. The Smart Pro RGB Bronze PSUs will feature the same RGB fan as the Toughpower Grand RGB, modular design and premium components, but the Bronze rating and a seven-year warranty.

Gallery: Thermaltake Adds RGB Lighting to 650 W, 750W and 850 W Toughpower Grand Gold PSUs

Asus Chromebook C302CA Leaked – Sports A Core m3 CPU, 4 GB of RAM And A Price Of $499

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The new laptop packs Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor running at 2.2 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, 65 Gb of internal storage, and a 12.5-inch 1080p display.

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ASolid Adopts AndesCore N9 for its AS2726 eMMC Controller to Deliver Competitive Market ...

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The Andes 32-bit CPU core enables the ASolid AS2726 eMMC chip to ... to develop innovative high-performance/low-power 32-bit processor cores ...

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Thursday 29 December 2016

Intel's Massive x86 Processor Revamp vs AMD's Ryzen: Clash Continues

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Intel is not backing down from the challenge as the company will also be launching a new range of processors on its lineup. The new Kaby Lake ...

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Music in the Round #82

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So, I can see, waiting for me on the horizon, a more potent processor. There's the option of a powerful but noisy computer placed in a different room ...

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Leaked Screenshot Confirms 1620x1080 Resolution for BlackBerry Mercury's Display

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... Snapdragon 820/821 processor. Instead, TCL has decided to include a mid-tier octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 CPU inside the Mercury.

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Intel's Kaby Lake Breaks The 7 GHz Barrier Using A Liquid Nitrogen Setup

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Intel's processors have been known to perform exceptionally well in the enthusiast segment and their performance have broken several records.

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AMD Zen release date, news: New Ryzen processor can give Intel's Core i7 a run for its money

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AMD could be introducing a CPU that matches Intel's technology, given the fact that it also is bragging what they call Pure Power and Precision Boost, ...

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Intel To End Core Legacy In Favour Of A New Implementation Of The x86 Architecture?

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AMD has also recently announced to update their processor line-up by introducing the Ryzen series of processors. Intel, with its new uArch, will have a ...

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Stocks Trend Analysis: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Chesapeake Energy Corporation ...

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It operates in two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor. The GPU segment offers processors, which include GeForce for PC gaming; Quadro for ...

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GPU is the new CPU

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Using clever tricks like 'Turbo mode' the CPU clock speed could be further bumped up. The math co-processor and graphics processing unit or GPU ...

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Samsung's Exynos 8895 SoC detailed in new leaks, could power Galaxy S8

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ALSO READ: Qualcomm to provide more details about Snapdragon 835 processor at CES 2017. CPU on Samsung's next chipset will be an octa-core ...

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AMD Ryzen Rivals Intel To Launch Kaby Lake With Optane SSDs

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AMD Ryzen rivals Intel is all set to launch the Kaby Lake processors with optane SSDs. Lenovo's upcoming laptops will carry these processors.

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Win Intel 6950X, 5960X, 6700k and 6600k Processors!

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While my team works away on Kaby Lake processor and motherboard reviews for publication in early 2017 I thought it would be a good idea to run ...

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Guy Overclocks Intel's Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Beyond 7GHz Barrier

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For the processor, having a base-clock of 101.78 MHz, a multiple of 69x was applied to push the CPU past the 7GHz milestone and achieve a clock ...

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The Samsung Exynos 8895 processor powering the Galaxy S8 might have up to three variants

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They are said to feature octa-core processors which combine four Exynos M2 CPU cores (clocked at up to 2.5GHz) and four Cortex A53 CPU cores ...

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Wednesday 28 December 2016

Intel Core I5-2320 Processor Quad-Core 3.0GHz LGA 1155 Desktop Cpu

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For sale : - CPU Processsor & Fan - PRICE FIRM : $110 - Item specifics: - Power: 95 W - Products Status: Used - Brand Name: Intel - L2 Cache: 6MB ...

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AMD Ryzen Leaked Benchmark Proves It Could Compete With Intel Core i7

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The leaked benchmark came from French tech magazine Canard PC which was able to test an engineering Sample of the CPU. Said processor has a ...

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New Snapdragon 835 benchmark results show up, fail to impress

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Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 835 processor is the one expected to ... The octa-core CPU is clocked to 1.9GHz and comes paired with 4GB of ...

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Leaked benchmark shows AMD's new Ryzen is comparable to Intel's $1000 Core i7-6900K ...

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AMD recently unveiled their high-performance desktop processors based on the “Zen” core architecture (codenamed “Summit Ridge”). The AMD ...

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AMD Ryzen release date, specs news: new benchmark listing leaked

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More details about AMD's upcoming Ryzen line of processors proved that it could beat Intel upon its release in 2017. French tech website Canard PC ...

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CES is Next Week - Quick Notes on GN's Attendance

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Just a heads-up for regular readers: We'll be at CES next week, where Intel and AMD are likely to each be sharing news of their new processor ...

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Lenovo rolls out refreshed ThinkPads featuring Kaby Lake CPUs and Optane SSDs

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Lenovo on Wednesday announced a smattering of new ThinkPad notebooks and accessories, some of which will ship with exciting new technology like Intel’s Optane solid state drives.

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Meizu's “Legent” Flagship to Pack Exynos 8893 CPU, 6GB RAM, 5.7-Inch QHD Display

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So, based on these sketches, it looks like Meizu Legent will be powered by an octa-core Exynos 8893 processor, coupled with no less than 6GB of ...

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Asus Chromebook C302CA with USB Type-C makes a brief appearance

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Inside, a 2.2GHz Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor and 4GB of RAM power the ... chuckula: (-3)Sorry, you posted to a CPU review on Ars Technica that ...

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Motherboard makers are excited for AMD's new Ryzen CPUs

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Ryzen will rock up to 16 threads of CPU performance with an 8-core processor starting at 3.4GHz, and performance in the levels of the Core i7-6800K ...

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EK Water Blocks Limited Edition 10th Anniversary Supremacy CPU Block Coming Next Week

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EK Water Blocks is celebrating its tenth anniversary in the water cooling business, and the company is doing something special to cap off the year. EKWB is building 100 commemorative collector’s edition Supremacy EVO 10th Anniversary water blocks.

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AMD Ryzen - First CPU benchmarks surface

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The code of the processor reviewed was AMD 2D3151A2M88E, though the chipset for the ... The AMD Ryzen CPU here performs extraordinarily well.

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Xiaomi Mi 6 Reportedly Launching in Early February with Snapdragon CPU Onboard

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Xiaomi Mi 6 Reportedly Launching in Early February with Snapdragon CPU Onboard ... that announcing the Mi 6 before Samsung's Galaxy S8 will make it world's first smartphone to pack Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processor.

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Processor Architecture 101 – the heart of your PC

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Basically, modern processors are clocked so fast that it's extremely difficult to make everything work—it's practically voodoo. This is a peek under the ...

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Galaxy S8 Exynos 8895 Processor Details Surface

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They are said to use a combination of four Exynos M2 CPU cores clocked at 2.5 GHz or 2.3 GHz based on the variant and four Cortex A53 CPU cores ...

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Intel Working on Massive x86 Processor Revamp: Should AMD Be Worried?

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The next three years should prove very interesting in the desktop CPU market as both Intel and AMD gear up for a massive fight for market share.

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Fan config: Does it matter? Testing push vs pull vs push/pull

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When I built my first PC a few years back, I used the excellent Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO to cool the processor. However, I remember feeling very ...

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AMD Ryzen New Leaked Benchmarks Shows Powerful Configurations

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There has been so much hype around the recently announced AMD Ryzen processors in tech circles. The Ryzen release is the recent move by AMD ...

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Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Processor Overclocked to 7GHz

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Kaby Lake is a 14nm processor with very few changes to the CPU architecture compared to Skylake. It's best to view it as a refinement, promising ...

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Gigabyte's upcoming BRIX Gaming GT Desktop leaks

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For the CPU, Gigabyte is including a 6th gen Intel Core i7-6700K processor clocked at 4.0GHz which is quite interesting to see as most OEMs are ...

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Intel Core i7 7700K Overclocked To 7GHz

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With half its cores and with no HyperThreading, the overclocked CPU did a PiFast run in 9.02 seconds and ... Those are solid results, but they are outmatched by several high end processors that are not running with half their cores.

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AMD Ryzen Processor Review Leaked: Comparable To Intel Core i7-6900K

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... Horizon event gone, many folks are talking about the new Ryzen processor and wondering if it can compete with Intel's finest. ... This is great news because AMD for years has been known for having processors that can melt Pluto.

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Tuesday 27 December 2016

How to Monitor Your PC Status !

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You wonder whether your processor needs to be replaced already but after opening up temperature readings, you realise that your processor is ...

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Many-core control: server-class processing power with Intel Xeon D processors

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This new performance class leverages Intel Xeon D processors with 4, 8 and 12 CPU cores, enabling extremely powerful controllers in an ...

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Kaby Lake Systems With Intel Optane SSDs Coming Soon

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Lenovo's announcement today of a new generation of ThinkPads based on Intel's Kaby Lake platform includes brief but tantalizing mention of Optane, Intel's brand for devices using the 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology they co-developed with Micron. Lenovo's new ThinkPads and competing high-end Kaby Lake systems will likely be the first appearance of 3D XPoint memory in the consumer PC market.

Several of Lenovo's newly announced ThinkPads will offer 16GB Optane SSDs in M.2 2242 form factor paired with hard drives as an alternative to a using a single NVMe SSD with NAND flash memory (usually TLC NAND, with a portion used as SLC cache). The new Intel Optane devices mentioned by Lenovo are most likely the codenamed Stony Beach NVMe PCIe 3 x2 drives that were featured in roadmap leaked back in July. More recent leaks have indicated that these will be branded as the Intel Optane Memory 8000p series, with a 32GB capacity in addition to the 16GB Lenovo will be using. Since Intel's 3D XPoint memory is being manufactured as a two-layer 128Gb (16GB) die, these Optane products will require just one or two dies and will have no trouble fitting on to a short M.2 2242 card alongside a controller chip.

The new generation of ThinkPads will be hitting the market in January and February 2017, but Lenovo and Intel haven't indicated when the configurations with Optane will be available. Other sources in the industry are telling us that Optane is still suffering from delays, so while we hope to see a working demo at CES, the Optane-equipped notebooks may not actually launch until much later in the year. We also expect the bulk of the initial supply of 3D XPoint memory to go to the enterprise market, just like virtually all of Intel and Micron's 3D MLC NAND output has been used for enterprise SSDs so far.

Support for Intel Optane branded devices based on 3D XPoint memory technology has long been bandied about as a new feature of the Kaby Lake generation of CPUs and chipsets, but Intel has not officially clarified what that means. The plan of record has always been for the first Optane products to be NVMe SSDs, but NVMe is already thoroughly supported by current platforms and software. Because Optane SSDs will have a significantly higher price per GB than NAND flash based SSDs, the natural role for Optane SSDs is to act as a small cache device for larger and slower storage devices. The "Optane support" that Kaby Lake brings is almost certainly just the addition of the ability to use NVMe SSDs (including Optane SSDs) as cache devices.

At a high level, using Optane SSDs as a cache for hard drives is no different from the SSD caching Intel first introduced in 2011 with the Z68 chipset for Sandy Bridge processors and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver version 10.5. Branded by Intel as Smart Response Technology (SRT), their SSD caching implementation built on the existing RAID capabilities of RST to use a SSD as a block-level cache of a hard drive, operating as a write-back or write-through cache depending on the user's preference. For SATA devices, no hardware features were required but booting from RST RAID or cache volumes requires support in the motherboard firmware, and Intel's drivers have used RAID and SRT SSD caching to provide product segmentation between different chipsets.

With the release of Skylake processors and the 100-series chipsets, Intel brought support for NVMe RAID to RST version 15. This was not as straightforward to implement as RAID and SRT for SATA drives, owing to the fact that the SATA drives in a RST RAID or SRT volume are all conveniently connected through Intel's own SATA controller and managed by the same driver. NVMe SSDs by contrast each connect to the system through general-purpose PCIe lanes and can use either the operating system's NVMe driver or a driver provided by the SSD manufacturer. In order to bring NVMe devices under the purview of Intel's RST driver, 100-series chipsets have an unusual trick: when the SATA controller is put in RAID mode instead of plain AHCI mode, NVMe devices that are connected to the PCH have their PCI registers re-mapped to appear within the AHCI controller's register space and the NVMe devices are no longer detectable as PCIe devices in their own right. This makes the NVMe SSDs inaccessible to any driver other than Intel's RST. Intel has provided very little public documentation of this feature and its operation is usually very poorly described by the UEFI configuration interfaces on supporting machines. This has caused quite a few tech support headaches for machines that enable this feature by default as it is seldom obvious how to put the machine back into a mode where standard NVMe drivers can be used. Worse, some machines such as the Lenovo Yoga 900 and IdeaPad 710 shipped with the chipset locked in RAID mode despite only having a single SSD. After public outcry from would-be Linux users, Lenovo released firmware updates that added the option of using the standard AHCI mode that leaves NVMe devices alone.

(excerpt from Intel 100-series chipset datasheet)

In spite of the limitations and rough edges, Intel's solution does ensure reliable operation in RAID mode, free of interference from third-party drivers. It's certainly less work than the alternative of writing a more general-purpose software RAID and caching system for Windows that can handle a variety of underlying drivers. It also lays the groundwork for adding support for NVMe cache devices to Intel's SRT caching system. Intel's SRT already has caching algorithms tuned for 16GB to 64GB caches in front of hard drives, so now that they have a solution for mediating access to NVMe SSDs it is simple to enable using both features simultaneously. The changes do need to be added to both the RST driver and to the motherboard firmware if booting from a cached volume is to be supported. Backporting and deploying the firmware changes to Skylake motherboards should be possible but is unlikely to happen.

In the years since Intel introduced SRT caching, another form of tiered storage has taken over: TLC NAND SSDs with SLC caching. NAND flash suffers from write times that are much longer than read times, and storing multiple bits per cell requires multiple passes of writes. To alleviate this, most TLC NAND-based SSDs for client PC usage treat a portion of their flash as SLC, storing just one bit per cell instead of three. This SLC is used as a cache to absorb bursts of writes, which are consolidated into TLC NAND when the drive is idle (or when the SLC cache fills up). Even TLC NAND has reasonably high read performance, so there is little need to use SLC to cache read operations. By contrast, Intel's Smart Response Technology has to cache access to hard drives, where both read and write latencies are painfully high. This means SRT has to balance keeping frequently-read data in the cache against making room for a burst of writes. Having a lot of static data hanging around on the cache device will cause significant write amplification to result from any wear leveling, but SRT already reduces the write load by having sequential writes bypass the cache. Taking into account that 3D XPoint memory can handle millions of write operations per cell, even a small 16GB cache device should have no trouble with endurance.

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Lenovo Updates The ThinkPad Lineup: New Models, Welcome Changes

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Today Lenovo is announcing a refresh of most of its ThinkPad lineup, and although the model numbers have only changed a bit, there are some very welcome changes to the lineup as well. Since most of the lineup is just being refreshed, we’ll go over what’s new on a holistic level.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup is one of the most well known lineup of laptops around. They’ve been the business focused lineup in Lenovo’s laptop arsenal for some time, and the ThinkPad is a staple in many businesses and enterprises. For 2017, Lenovo has done a gentle retouch of most of the product lineup, brining about some new technology and other changes.

The first big announcement is that Lenovo is launching Intel Optane caching drives on select ThinkPad models. We’ve followed the development of this new non-volatile storage solution for some time, and please check out the full write-up on this announcement of shipping 3D XPoint here. Due to the small storage capacity, these initial Optane M.2 drives will be used for HDD caching on several ThinkPad models, including the ThinkPad T470p, L470, L570, T470, and T570.

Lenovo is also switching to the Microsoft Precision TouchPad drivers, for a more consistent experience across devices. This is certainly a welcome change, and it’s great to see more companies leverage this. Precision TouchPad is continuously being updated by Microsoft as well. The software side is only half of the story of course, but it’s a big part of the experience.

Still on the software side, Lenovo is also switching the entire ThinkPad lineup for 2017 to a Windows 10 Signature Edition image. This is excellent news not only for the home user, who won’t have to deal with gratuitous software which was not always needed or welcome, but for business users this should allow for faster deployment as well, since a custom image may not be required at all. After some of the news stories over the last couple of years, it is excellent to see a company shipping Signature Edition images right out of the box for an entire product lineup, and we can only hope this expands to the rest of Lenovo’s laptops.

On the hardware front, other than Optane, Lenovo is making a big push for USB-C and especially Thunderbolt 3. With the addition of this port, Lenovo is able to offer some new accessories to provide an easier docking solution than the traditional docking station.

ThinkPads have shipped with fingerprint readers for some time, and Lenovo is also supplementing the T470 and T570 with Windows Hello cameras, for facial recognition. This doesn’t replace the fingerprint, but gives another option for end users.

Possibly the most interesting news of all is that Lenovo is going to be offering some ThinkPad models in a new silver color, alongside the traditional matte black. Although this could be blasphemy to some, the new color looks great in the images provided, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some hands-on time with them at CES and see how it looks in person.

ThinkPad Yoga 370

As far as new models, Lenovo is launching the ThinkPad Yoga 370, which is a 13.3-inch FHD version of their ThinkPad Yoga lineup, which previously consisted of the 12.5-inch Yoga 260 and 14-inch Yoga 460. The ThinkPad Yoga 370 offers an integrated pen which docks inside the laptop, as well as Thunderbolt 3, and it will be offered in black or silver with availability in March 2017, starting from $1264.

ThinkPad T470

The T470 is one of the new models to feature an optional Intel Optane 16 GB cache drive, and it also will have a touch fingerprint reader and Windows Hello camera option. Thunderbolt 3 is also here on the 14-inch laptop, along with a GeForce 940MX GPU and up to 32 GB of DDR4. It continues to feature the split battery, with a 23 Wh in the front and a removable 48 Wh or 73 Wh battery in the rear. It will be available in February starting at $914

ThinkPad T570

The 15.6-inch T series is similar to the T470 in that it will offer Thunderbolt 3, fingerprint, IR camera, and Intel Optane caching, and it also keeps the dGPU with the GeForce 940MX, but the larger model can also be had with a UHD display (3840x2160) in addition to the standard FHD (1920x1080) version. It will be available in March starting at $909.

ThinkPad T470s

The ThinkPad T470s continues to get slimmer and lighter. What was once a slightly lighter T series is now a 14-inch notebook that is under three pounds, with the latest version just 2.9 lbs. It can be had with up to 24 GB of memory, with 8 GB soldered on and a single DIMM available for another 16 GB. It still features Ethernet, along with Thunderbolt 3 and up to 1 TB of PCIe SSD. The thinner T series is also available in silver, with availability in February starting at $1099.

ThinkPad T470p

The p model is for performance, with 45-Watt CPUs instead of the U series found in the slimmer and lighter notebooks. This is combined with the GeForce 940MX, and up to 32 GB of DDR4. The T470p is also available with the 16 GB Intel Optane caching drive, and split batteries with up to 12 hours of battery life with the larger 72 Wh battery in the rear. The T470p will be available in March starting at $1049.

ThinkPad 13

The ThinkPad 13 is Lenovo’s value offering, and it will be available in January for a starting price of $674. For less than $700, it will feature Intel Kaby Lake processors, with up to 32 GB of DDR4 with 2 DIMM slots, and up to 512 GB of PCIe storage. The display is a FHD 1920x1080 touch version, and it features 3 USB 3.0 ports, USB-C which doubles as a charging port, dTPM 2.0, and a SD card reader. It’s 19.1mm thick and weighs 3.17 lbs. It will also be offered in black or silver.

ThinkPad L470

The L series is positioned as the mainstream business value lineup, and they slot in for a bit less money than the T series. The L470 is a 14-inch FHD IPS model, and it also features optional Intel Optane caching, and 2 DIMMS for up to 32 GB of RAM. It keeps the split batteries as well, offering up to 95.5 Wh of battery capacity. In addition, it adds a discrete GPU in the Radeon R5 M430. It will be available in March starting from $799.

ThinkPad L570

This 15.6-inch laptop is quite a bit different than the similarly named L470, in that it doesn’t have the split battery, or discrete graphics. It has a single 48 Wh battery, along with optional Intel Optane caching or SSD drives. The base model is a 1366x768 TN display, so be careful, although there is a FHD IPS offering as well. It features a dedicated number pad and optical drive, and it can be had with up to 32 GB of DDR4 with the 2 DIMM slots, and will be available in March starting at $809.

ThinkPad X270

This 12.5-inch ThinkPad has been around for quite a while now, and the latest version adds USB-C for power, display, and data. RAM options are 4 to 16 GB of DDR4, and storage is up to 2 TB of HDD or 512 GB PCIe SSD. It offers the ThinkPad split battery with 23 Wh in the front and 48 or 72 Wh in the rear. With the largest battery, Lenovo claims up to 21.4 hours of battery life. It comes in at 2.9 lbs, with availability in March from $909

Gallery: ThinkPad Refresh 2017

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