Are you a water cooling enthusiast that owns a X299 GIGABYTE motherboard? EK Water Blocks have some good news for you, having recently announced their latest monoblock and 3rd LGA-2066 socket based monoblock exclusively for compatible GIGABYTE motherboards. The EK-FB GA X299 GAMING RGB Monoblock ticks every box, performance, style and price.

Supported GIGABYTE motherboards include:

To ensure maximum cooling efficiency, EKWB and GIGABYTE have teamed up to design and engineer this fantastic all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) monoblock. Using award-winning EK-Supremacy EVO cooling engine and a new redesigned cold plate, ensuring precision contact with the processor's IHS to achieve amazing cooling performance for those high overclocks.

With news that the much anticipated Rainbow Six: Siege expansion, Operation Blood Orchid was delayed until September 6, Ubisoft also recently released some information regarding map pool changes to Ranked and Casual playlist changes in their recent Dev Blog- Data Cleanup: Map Changes.

Ubisoft have decided to reduce the total maps available in Ranked mode. Ranked mode map pool will mimic that of the competitive Pro League map pool, this will allow players to hone their skills in the most competitive environment available.

Below is the maps available for Ranked mode.

If there was a place to find an NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype, I didn't think it would be in a freakin' Canadian pawn shop, but here we are... with some interesting news.

Reddit user 'FwrigginRwootbeer' said they found an NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype that Android Police have confirmed is a unit that was given to game developers to work around with, but never reached the public. What the Redditor found was that the NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype rocked an ARM Cortex-A57 processor @ 1.91GHz, 3GB of RAM< and a 5.9-inch 1440x810 display.

We might not ever see NVIDIA release the Shield 2, but here's hoping.

Microsoft has been hyping the hell out of the upcoming 4K-capable Xbox One X console, but the company has just ninja'd its Xbox One - killing it, and continuing to push Xbox One S and the upcoming Xbox One X.

Can you believe that Microsoft released the original Xbox One back in 2013, but then the new and improved Xbox One S last year which was 40% smaller than the original Xbox One. At the time, Microsoft explained: "With a fresh new design and "robot white" color, the Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One, creating the most compact Xbox yet. It also includes a built-in power supply, and in response to fan requests worldwide, can be placed horizontally or vertically with an optional stand".

The upcoming Xbox One X console is the best yet, packing 12GB of GDDR5 memory, a GPU capable of 6 TFLOPs of performance, and 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This means it's about as fast as a lower/mid-range PC, with Project Scorpio detailed as: "Project Scorpio will be the first console with 6 teraflops of power, which will empower the world's greatest game creators to fully embrace true 4K gaming without sacrificing quality, generate premier VR experiences, without sacrificing performance, and putting greater graphic fidelity in the hands of the world's best game creators".

Samsung has been the king of smartphone displays for a few years now, but they continue to push the boundaries of what's possible on their smartphones, leading the way with their new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone.

The folks over at DisplayMate have put the new Galaxy Note 8 through its paces, noting that the Super AMOLED panel on the Note 8 is simply amazing. DisplayMate gave the Note 8 display an A+ as it beat not just Samsung's own smartphones, but all of their competitors, too. This is what DisplayMate had to say:

DisplayMate had some major display highlights for the Note 8, adding:

Half-Life 3 will never see the light of day, but I'm only saying that because if I put it into writing hopefully it will see the light of day, but plenty of gamers are now angry at Valve over Dota 2, blaming the game for killing Half-Life 3.

PCGamesN noticed Dota 2 reviews on Steam blaming the game for killing Half-Life 3, with some of these negative comments standing out: "Dota killed Half-Life 3. Nuff said". Then there's "HL3 died for this" and "This game is derivative trash, bring back real story driven FPS games, which are the reason you are here". How about "Newell ♥♥♥♥ you (please dont delete my steam account)" or "Valve is a blood sucking company that doesn't care about it's User's [sic] and refuses to make Half-Life 3". There is one gamer who wants L4D3, though: "I really don't care about Half Life 3, but you know, making Left 4 Dead 3 would be pretty nice".

PUBG might be the biggest PC game right now, but I have this sneaking suspicion that we're close to a new Half-Life announcement with all of this news of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 being teased in Unreal Engine 4, and other Half-Life related news. I don't want to be positive as I'm a realist... and I think that's because I'm protecting the amazing memories that I have of Half-Life 3 and don't want them destroyed.

AMD has just launched its Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, which is available right now in reference form, for $399. I talked with AMD on the phone yesterday, where they reiterated their stance on the $399 price, ensuring that AMD are underlining the sub $400 pricing.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics cards available with the limited supply being eaten up ridiculously fast, with more stock coming in the next couple of weeks. If you can get your hands-on the RX Vega 56, you'll be able to enjoy some 1080p and 1440p gaming at 60FPS+ which competes directly against the GeForce GTX 1070 from NVIDIA.

Pricing and availability aside, the Radeon RX Vega 56 is AMD's best Vega-based graphics card in my opinion. Radeon RX Vega 64 is priced too close, and in some cases more than the GTX 1080 and closer to GTX 1080 Ti, without having the performance to back up its massive price tag, power consumption and heat. Radeon RX Vega 56 is a much better alternative to the GTX 1070 if you're a FreeSync monitor owner, or Team Red supporter.

Razer have introduced the most customizable controller for PC and Xbox One, the Razer Wolverine Ultimate. Featuring Razer Chroma™ lighting capabilities, the Razer Wolverine Ultimate is the first console product to support the Razer Chroma SDK, allowing developers to integrate advanced lighting capabilities for Xbox One games to create next level gaming immersion.

The Razer Wolverine Ultimate allows for maximum customization with two interchangeable D-Pads, a range of interchangeable thumbsticks with different heights and shape and a total of 6 remappable triggers and buttons ensure this controller adapts itself to any gamer. Ultra-responsive tactile switch action buttons and an automatic hair-trigger mode ensure performance is paramount for this premium controller.

"We've taken our time with the development of the Razer Wolverine Ultimate to really get it right," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "Thanks to endless design iterations and pro-gamer feedback, we're proud to be finally releasing a new contender for the crown."

AMD's 8-core/16 thread Ryzen Threadripper 1900X is due to go on sale August 31, well, at least it's supposed to. It appears as if India's leading PC hardware store PrimeABGB, have jumped the gun and began selling the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X ahead of its offical release date.

PrimeABGB have listed the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X at INR 45,699, this is equivalent to approximately $715 USD, a significant increase on AMD's MSRP of $549. However, PrimeABGB also list the 1920X at INR 65,488 ($1,024USD) compared with $799.99 MSRP. The 1950X sees a similar mark-up at INR 82,008 ($1,283USD) compared with $999.99 MSRP.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU series has already seen the release of the 1920X and 1950X back on August 10, are Intel worried? We think so.

Taking place this Friday and Saturday (1-2 September), PAX Australia organizers today announced a surprise pop-up event that will give the public a preview of their main event, PAX Australia 2017 that will take place October 27-29 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

PAX Australia's pop-up event takes place in Federation Square and is open and free to the public. Featuring a massive screen, this pop-up event that will allow gamers to play some of the latest games, win multiple prizes including PAX Australia 3-Day badges, admire or dress in cosplay and enjoy a Friday night concert featuring local Melbourne bands. Tabletop fans will not be disappointed, as they can battle in giant Jenga, Connect Four and other board games.

"Before the PAX mothership descends upon Melbourne this October, we're very excited to offer a snack-sized PAX at Fed Square on 1-2 September," said Luke Lancaster, PAX Aus Content Manager at ReedPOP. "Come hang out, play games, win prizes, enjoy the concerts and surround yourself with the amazing PAX community".