Colorful's custom motherboard sports built-in NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU

Derek Strickland | Motherboards | Jun 5, 2016 5:02 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - Colorful showed off a very interesting motherboard at its booth in Taipei: a B150 chipset motherboard with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU built into the PCB.

Colorful's custom motherboard sports built-in NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU

Alongside its new iGame GeForce GTX 1080 video card, Colorful showed off a surprise reveal at its Computex booth: a custom B150 chipset motherboard that features an onboard GeForce GTX 1070 GPU. It looks like Colorful is making a console-smashing, ultra-performance mini-PC that's capable of VR support. This PCB fits neatly with Colorful's new partnership with Chinese ISP Shunwang Technology to provide VR-ready solutions to Chinese internet cafes. I think this new PCB would power a compact, high-performance VR-ready mini-PC for internet cafes as well as consumer living rooms.

The motherboard is custom and doesn't confirm to any ATX configurations. Colorful's custom motherboard slots up to an Intel Skylake i7-6700 in the LGA 1151 socket, with two SO-DIMM lanes that support up to 2133MHz DDR4 RAM. There's also two PCI expansion slots for SSDs or Wi-Fi chips.

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Tesoro reveals new IR key switches with 0.1 millisecond response times

Derek Strickland | Peripherals | Jun 4, 2016 10:21 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - Tesoro's new light-based infrared switches could pave the way for dramatic innovations on future mechanical keyboards.

Tesoro reveals new IR key switches with 0.1 millisecond response times

Tesoro revealed its new Tesoro IR mechanical keyboard switches at Computex, giving us a glimpse at what the future holds for enthusiast-grade keyboards. The new Tesoro IR switches are light-based, so they completely eliminate metal bounce and oxidation, thus dramatically increasing switch lifespan. Here's how the infrared switches work: each switch is outfitted with an IR blaster that beams light, and as each key is pressed, the light is broken, thereby registering the keystroke.

The Tesoro IR switches offer a tremendous speed boost over the company's low-profile AGILE switches in its GRAM Spectrum keyboards. "The Tesoro IR switches score 0.1 millisecond response times, meaning they are extremely fast," said Tesoro's Marketing Manager Lucas Wiltse. Although the Tesoro IR switches are light-based, they still have a tactile bump and resemble the Cherry MX Blue switches.

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Noctua's new premium 120mm fans spotted at Computex

Derek Strickland | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 4, 2016 5:36 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - Noctua plans to expand its line of premium case fans with two new 120mm fans: the A-Series slim, and the next-gen 120mm design.

Noctua's new premium 120mm fans spotted at Computex

Noctua's new fan duo starts off with the 120mm A-Series Slim Fan, which sports a super-thin 15mm thick design, seven fan blades, and Noctua's renowned SS02 bearings. The A-Series Slim is fastened by a reinforced metal core that ensures optimum endurance and stability, a dual-bearing motor, and anti-vibration pads.

The Next-Gen 120mm fan isn't a slim model, and sports nine fan blades, a metal reinforced core like the A-Series Slim Fan, as well as the signature SS02 bearings. Noctua says the Next-Gen 120mm has optimized pressure and airflow for heat sinks and radiators, with flow acceleration channels for improved air circulation, and an advanced acoustic frame designed to reduce noise.

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Raijintek demos pumpless liquid cooling system at Computex

Derek Strickland | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 4, 2016 4:45 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - Raijintek shows off its "Pumpless AIO" in Taipei, revealing how exactly the new generation of liquid cooling systems operate.

Raijintek demos pumpless liquid cooling system at Computex

Today's closed-loop liquid cooling systems are more optimized than ever, but in the not so distant future, we could start seeing pumpless AIO systems. Raijintek demonstrated its new pumpless LCS prototype at Computex, utilizing a simplified radiator, tube, and water block system that utilizes the hardware system's natural heat to circulate the coolant.

The Pumpless AIO is made up of a passive, copper-fronted CPU/GPU water block with small channels optimized for maximum heat dissipation, and two tubes that lead up to a radiator. Now you might be wondering how exactly the coolant travels updates to reach the radiator without a pump; the system uses special coolant that evaporates into vapor at 40C - 50C, and the vapor travels up one tube into the radiator, where it condenses back into a liquid to circulate down the other tube and cool the CPU/GPU.

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EVGA reveals new L-shaped Power Link VGA power adapter

Derek Strickland | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 4, 2016 3:47 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - On the heels of its new RGB high-bandwidth SLI bridges, EVGA has revealed yet another awesome accessory aimed at optimizing enthusiast rigs: the new Power Link.

EVGA reveals new L-shaped Power Link VGA power adapter

EVGA's new Power Link is an L-shaped accessory that allows users to hook up PCI-E power cords to the side of a video card instead of the top, adding tons of flexibility for open-air and home theater PC builds. The Power Link is outfitted with LED lighting, and sports male 8+8 PCIe slots on one end, with female ports on the other. This nifty little adapter not only provides more headroom for compact chassis and builds but also allows for cleaner cable management in enthusiast builds.

Right now the Power Link accessories are made to fit into EVGA's GeForce GTX 1080 video card lineup, but the company has plans to bring other configurations in the future that support other video cards like EVGA's GeForce GTX 980 Ti FTW. The Power Link will be sold separately, but pricing nor availability has been determined.

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MSI shows off the Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium motherboard at Computex

Derek Strickland | Motherboards | Jun 4, 2016 2:38 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - MSI's new alabaster Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium motherboard made an appearance in Taipei, showing off metallic PCI-E slots and reinforced DIMM lanes along with a stylish chrome-and-white PCB.

MSI shows off the Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium motherboard at Computex

MSI's Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium motherboard is a small step below from MSI's premium Z170A XPower Titanium model, but retains many of the same features and color scheme. The MPower Titanium is the second socket LGA 1151 motherboard in MSI's Gaming Titanium series, and fits Intel's 6th Gen Skylake CPUs up to the Intel i7-6700K.

Like its bigger brother, the Z170A MPower Titanium Gaming board's metallic flair serves a key purpose: the motherboard's PCI-E x16 slots are reinforced with metal to eliminate bending from the heaviest of video cards. The motherboard's DDR4 RAM-supported DIMM lanes are also braced with metal.

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Async Compute receives huge endorsement from multiple game developers

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 4, 2016 12:04 AM CDT

AMD was ahead of the curve when it put more eggs into the Asynchronous Compute basket, and that hard work is paying off now that we're seeing more and more games and technology demos using the technology. NVIDIA was behind the game when the Maxwell architecture didn't support Async Compute, but they've played catch up on the next-gen Pascal architecture.

Well, the co-founder of Oxide Games, Dan Baker, went to Twitter to kick off a chat about Asynchonous Compute, saying that it's "definitely a super useful feature in DirectX 12". id Software's Lead Renderer Programmer, Tiago Sousa chimed in, saying that id Software gained 3-5ms in rendering time with DOOM. According to Sousa, Async Compute and the other features built into AMD's architecture, were the reasons behind id Software being able to hit 60FPS on the Xbox One and PS4 with DOOM.

Mickael Gilabert, the 3D Technical Lead over at Ubisoft Montreal said he had some great gains in Far Cry Primal with Async Compute, with around 2.5-3ms, adding "Async FTW". It seems that Asynchronous Compute is a huge deal for game developers, and now that NVIDIA has joined the game with Pascal, we could see it used much more widely.

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AMD explains Radeon RX 480 'image quality controversy' with AOTS

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 3, 2016 11:49 PM CDT

AMD revealed its next-gen Radeon RX 480 during Computex 2016, with one of the demos displaying during the reveal being Oxide Games' Ashes of the Singularity. The demo saw AMD comparing the Radeon RX 480 in CrossFire against NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080.

During the demo, there were a lot of people - myself included, that noticed the image quality between the two were not identical at all. Well, Robert Hallock, AMD's Technical Marketing boss, took to Reddit to provide some answers. He provided the full system specs and drivers used for the demo, which included an Intel Core i7-5930K, 32GB of DDR4, Windows 10, and for the drivers: AMD Driver: 16.30-160525n-230356E, and the NVIDIA Driver: 368.19.

Both GPUs were running the 'crazy' settings at 1080p with 8x MSAA and V-Sync disabled. Hallock went into great detail, explaining: "Ashes uses procedural generation based on a randomized seed at launch. The benchmark does look slightly different every time it is run. But that, many have noted, does not fully explain the quality difference people noticed".

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The Division being adapted into a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Derek Strickland | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jun 3, 2016 8:51 AM CDT

On the heels of the Assassin's Creed movie, Ubisoft is interested in adapting more of its IPs onto the silver screen.

The Division being adapted into a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Ubisoft reportedly wants to make a major film adaptation of its post-apocalyptic shooter The Division and is eyeing Jake Gyllenhaal for a lead role. Variety reports that pre-planning stages are already underway, and Gyllenhaal will be attached to the film as a lead actor as well as producer. Ubisoft is currently looking for someone to write the film.

Despite its game-breaking glitches and major framework issues, The Division has sold incredibly well, generating $330 million in sales in just five days. This kind of success prompted Ubisoft to think about full franchise opportunities for The Division, and a film would help boost attachment for the existing game and possible sequels.

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In Win's new RGB Aurora case fans sport daisy chain power sharing

Derek Strickland | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 3, 2016 7:54 AM CDT

Computex 2016 - At Computex In Win showcased its new Aurora fans, the first-ever case fans that support modular power sharing. As an added bonus users can easily adjust fan speeds with a dedicated wireless remote control.

In Win's new RGB Aurora case fans sport daisy chain power sharing

In Win's new 120mm RGB Aurora case fans are pretty special: the fans can be connected to one another to share power and speed controls. Each Aurora fan is equipped with two 6-pin connectors that slot into other Aurora fans, effectively making a daisy chain. What's more is that the power and speed of the entire Aurora fan array can be finely adjusted with a remote control, allowing users an incredibly easy and flexible cooling solution. Fans can also be individually tuned and tweaked with the remote, as well as toggling different RGB effects.

The 120mm x 120mm x 25mm In Win Aurora fans spin between 800 RPMs and 1,400 RPMs in PWM mode, and up to 2,000 RPMs in Turbo Mode. The fans move 40.26CFM of air flow at a noise level of 23.7dB(A) and have a rated air pressure of 1.5mm/H20.

Continue reading: In Win's new RGB Aurora case fans sport daisy chain power sharing (full post)

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