Intel Corp. has asked its arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices to provide it access to the Mantle application programming interface (API), AMD said last week. While in its current form Mantle can hardly bring any tangible benefits to Intel, the latter could redesign the API in order to allow software developers …
Read More »Japanese stores begin to sell DDR4 memory modules
Although the first systems that will need DDR4 memory modules will emerge on the market in several months, at least one store in Japan has already began to offer DDR4 memory sticks. Unfortunately, the price of the memory modules is very high even by Japanese standards. Akiba PC Hotline reports …
Read More »AMD to re-launch FX-9590 with liquid cooler
A few days ago AMD’s Roy Taylor teased us on Twitter with a picture of an unnamed CPU from the FX series. However, the cat is out of the bag now and we know that AMD's mysterious CPU is in-fact going to be a re-launch of the 5GHz FX-9590 bundled with …
Read More »AMD readies enhanced Radeon R9 290X ‘Hawaii’ graphics solution
Back in early January it was reported that the Hawaii graphics processing unit from Advanced Micro Devices might be more powerful than AMD publicly disclosed because of deactivated units. So far the theory has not been proven, but this may change soon. A famous overclocker said on Friday that AMD …
Read More »New Biostar TB85 mainboard pushes bitcoin mining
Taipei electronics firm Biostar has announced a new motherboard, this timing pushing not only its abilities when it comes to the office or the game room, but the depths of its bitcoin mine as well. The TB85 supports both 4th generation i7 and i5 CPUs and up to 16GB of DDR3 …
Read More »Aerocool Dead Silence DS200 Review
You get a number of clues about the Aerocool Dead Silence DS200 just from reading the name. This is a mid-tower ATX case that promises your new gaming PC build will be very quiet. I know the name says ‘Dead Silent' but the marketing material actually refers to Super Silent. …
Read More »Intel Core i7 4790K Devil’s Canyon Review (inc. Overclocking)
Our review of the new Intel Core i7 4790K. It has been some time coming even though we have had an Intel sample for some time now. We wanted to take our time and not only review the processor but create a little overclocking guide for our readers buying one. We found a lot of interesting things - including some processor degradation when we pushed it too hard, for too long. All things considered Is this the processor you want to consider for your next system? What about Intel's new Intel’s NGPTIM? How does it overclock? How is power consumption? How does it rate beside the 4770K?
Read More »AMD readies new FX processor with bundled liquid-cooling
Advanced Micro Devices plans to release another FX-series desktop microprocessor that will come bundled with closed-loop liquid cooling system, the firm said this week. The company did not unveil any details about the upcoming chip, but demonstrated its packaging and said that it will be available soon. Roy Taylor, vice …
Read More »G.Skill Phoenix Blade promises 1.9GB/sec SSD transfer speeds
Famous for giving high end overclockers some of the fastest memory of all time, G.Skill used Computex 2014 to add some exciting new products to its line-up. KitGuru was on hand to capture the pixels. Arguably one if the most dramatic stands in the Nangang Exhibition Halls belonged to G.Skill. …
Read More »Intel set to launch Core i7 ‘Haswell-E’ processors in mid-September
The launch date of the of Intel Corp.’s next-generation high-end desktop (HEDT) microprocessors code-named “Haswell-E” has been revealed by a web-site. The new chips as well as the new X99 desktop platform will be released in mid-September, just like their predecessors. Intel plans to officially release the Core i7-5960X, the …
Read More »Intel could add customer-specific instructions to its Xeon chips
For several years now Intel Corp. has configured some of its Xeon processors in accordance with demands of its large customers, such as Amazon or Facebook. Earlier this year Intel agreed to install FPGAs [field programmable gate arrays] into the package of its Xeon central processing units in order to …
Read More »Wide availability of Intel’s ‘Broadwell’ chips slips to 2015
While Intel Corp. has publicly announced that the first systems based on the code-named “Broadwell” processors will be available by Christmas, it now looks like actual availability of such PCs will be rather scarce. Apparently, only “initial” devices based on the Broadwell processors will show up this year, whereas mass …
Read More »Synology gets serious about sizeable storage
Most famous for its affordable home/small business solutions, Synology presented a certain amount of balance at Computex recently. For ever cool unit that looks at home on your desktop, Synology also had a fully-populated monster on display. KitGuru tried to remember the last time we saw 180 hard drives in …
Read More »AMD to increase energy efficiency of APUs by 25 times by 2020
Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday unveiled a rather bold strategy called 25X20 under which it intends to dramatically increase energy efficiency of its accelerated processing units by the year 2020. In the next six years AMD plans to further optimize power consumption of its chips and also increase their performance, …
Read More »Antec reminds: PSUs should sport enhanced energy efficiency starting 1st of July
Correction: the first version of this news-story stated that the EU plans to ban inefficient PSUs from entering the market. Apparently, this is not correct. The EU only wants inefficient PSUs out of PCs. If someone wants to get a discrete PSU, he or she is free to do it. Cheap …
Read More »The first 20nm processing unit? A Bitcoin miner!
There is a rumour that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. experiences yield issues with its 20nm process technology, which has forced companies like AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm and others to delay the ramp up of their 20nm designs. It is unknown whether the rumours are true, but KnC Miner, a developer of …
Read More »Intel Pentium G3258 ‘anniversary edition’ chip overclocked to 6.8GHz
Intel Corp.’s Pentium G3258 ‘anniversary edition’ central processing unit was overshadowed by the much more powerful Core i-series “Devil’s Canyon” processors when originally introduced earlier this year. However, it looks like the chip is a rather good overclocker that has a lot of chances to become a decent choice for …
Read More »Latest Aerocool DS-200 chassis ready to land in multiple colours
The scale of a modern computer exhibition is hard to take in, unless you try walking every inch yourself. Over in Hall 1 of the World Trade Centre in Taiwan recently, Aerocool had a bunch of new products on show. KitGuru used the necessary amount of shoe leather to get …
Read More »Asus to enable overclocking of ‘Devil’s Canyon’, Pentium processors on ‘non-Z’ platforms
Officially, Intel Corp. allows overclocking of its X- and K-series microprocessors on mainboards based only on the X- and Z-series core-logic sets. However, from time to time the company and its partners make exceptions in a bid to allow more affordable overclocking. It looks like this may happen with the …
Read More »Micron and SK Hynix interested in Taiwanese SSD controllers
The consolidation on the market of solid-state drives is in full swing right now. Just recently Seagate agreed to acquire LSI SandForce and LSI Nytro divisions from Avago, whereas yesterday SanDisk announced its takeover of Fusion-io. It is not surprising that large makers of SSDs and NAND flash memory are …
Read More »PCI Express 4.0 on track to double the bandwidth
The PCI Express technology has served as the main standard for PC and server expansion slots for exactly ten years now and will probably be used for many years to come. Members of the PCI SIG [special interest group] reportedly agreed to double the bandwidth of the PCI Express 4.0 …
Read More »Sales of graphics cards dropped significantly in Q2 – report
Sales of graphics cards significantly dropped in the second quarter this year, according to a media report. In fact, shipments of discrete desktop graphics processing units have been declining for years now, but this time the drop of demand is attributed to crypto-currency miners. While the actual sales figures of …
Read More »Nothing stark about Aerocool’s Iron Man inspired chassis
One of the best exchanges in the original Iron Man film was between Tony Stark and his design-bot when it comes to improvements for his suit, as it moved from early prototype to crime-fighting readiness. KitGuru checks out Aerocool's use of Hotrod Red. The Dead Silence range is understated. Aerocool's …
Read More »Seagate 1TB SSHD Review (with Sony Playstation 4)
KitGuru focuses primarily on PC oriented hardware reviews – but that doesn't mean from time to time we won't find something genuinely interesting enough for our readers in other hardware related areas. With this in mind we were recently offered a look at the Seagate 1TB SSHD drive, a hybrid …
Read More »SanDisk to acquire Fusion-io for $1.1 billion
SanDisk on Monday said that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Fusion-io, a leading maker of high-performance solid-state drives for enterprise and hyperscale datacenters. The takeover will help SanDisk to enter a new market and gain numerous technologies as well as new intellectual property. “Fusion-io will accelerate our …
Read More »Origin PC debuts small form-factor mini-ITX PCs with GeForce Titan Z
Origin PC, a U.S.-based boutique PC maker, this week introduced one of the world’s first small form-factor (SFF) personal computers featuring Nvidia Corp.’s dual-chip GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card. The system comes in the Silverstone RVZ01 case, which is very small and sleek. The company positions the new Chronos …
Read More »Asustek and Intel provide £35 cash-back with purchase of hardware
Asustek Computer on Friday announced a major promotion that it will be running together with Intel. From now on and until the 7th of July it will be possible to get up to £35 cash back when you purchase an Asus mainboard based on the Intel Z97 core-logic as well …
Read More »Intel licenses wireless charging technology from WiTricity
At the Computex 2014 trade-show Intel Corp. announced that its reference designs based on the Skylake generation of microprocessors will support Rezence, a wireless charging standard developed by the Alliance 4 Wireless Power (A4WP). This week Intel actually licensed wireless charging solutions for computing devices designed by WiTricity. The A4WP’s …
Read More »Asus gives free Cerberus headset to buyers of Radeon R9 290 cards
High-performance graphics cards are not really affordable, so are high-quality gaming headsets. But what if you need to have both? Make compromises? Apparently, Asustek Computer and Overclockers UK have a solution: you buy an Asus Radeon R9 290-based graphics card and get a headset for free. For a limited time …
Read More »Win MSI R9 280 Gaming or PNY GTX760 XLR8! (& STEAM games)
You probably read our analysis earlier this week of the MSI R9 280 Gaming v PNY GTX760 XLR8 graphics cards. If you want a solution to game around the £200 sweet spot then you won't get much better! Over the next week KitGuru is giving these cards away to two …
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