Cases, Cooling & PSU News - Page 1

Seasonic has just unveiled its latest VERTEX series power supplies, which were specifically designed and built to handle all of the new PC components coming out: including ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards.

The new Seasonic VERTEX series PSUs were announced hot on the heels of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, where even Seasonic says that we've "entered a new era, where the power supply, more than ever, has an important role to play".

So, the new Seasonic VERTEX series PSUs are here to serve your PC needs in 1200W, 1000W, 850W, and 750W models in both Platinum and Gold levels of efficiency. Seasonic has gone fully modular for its VERTEX series PSUs, with the new 16-pin "12VHPWR" power cable that NVIDIA's new fleet of Ada Lovelace graphics cards will have.

ADATA has just announced a monster new ATX 3.0-compatible power supply under its high-end and gaming brand: XPG. The new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs have been announced, ready for just about everything you can throw at it.

The new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs come in 1000W and 1300W models, they're fully modular 80 PLUS Platinum certified and are the most compact high-wattage PSU form factor that XPG has made so far. Inside, the new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs are cooled by the XPG VENTO PRO 120 PWM fan by Nidec.

Now, the business end of this PSU: ADATA's new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs are ATX 3.0 compatible, ready for the future wave of devices, and they're PCIe 5.0 ready. There's a native 16-pin (12+4) PCIe 5.0 "12VHPWR" connector, which is something you're going to want if you buy one of NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 4080, but more so the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

If you don't know already: next-gen power supplies are coming thanks to next-gen PCIe 5.0 graphics cards that will need to chew down more power, much more power.

The new 12VHPWR cable plug connector

The new ATX 3.0 power supplies will include new PCIe Gen5 connector -- the new 12VHPWR power connectors -- and now the PCI-SIG organization is sending out emails to PCI-SIG members that it's concerned over "thermal variance" of using regular 8-pin PCIe power cables into 12VHPWR power adapters.

Why is this an issue? Well, until the last generation we were hitting around 300W maximum power consumption for most mainstream GPUs, while some cards were made to hit 450W like NVIDIA's last flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card. Even then, NVIDIA was using a new PCIe power connector that split from the 12-pin PCIe cable to 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors (150W per 8-pin PCIe power connector = 450W total) for its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.

The world of ATX 3.0 power supplies is about to open up, where we've seen MSI's new MEG Ai1300P being the world's first ATX 3.0 PSU, and now we've got the Seasonic "PS Vertex" series PSUs being teased.

Seasonic's new ATX 3.0-ready " PS Vertex" + 16-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector

Seasonic's new PS Vertex power supplies will come in 1000W to 1200W variants, with 80+ Gold through to 80+ Platinum series, with the new PSU family from Seasonic being ATX 3.0 ready. We've got a single 16-pin PCIe 5.0-ready power connector, which is capable of driving 600W of power into a next-gen graphics card.

Seasonic has used a fully modular design on its 80+ Platinum series, while there is just partial modular goodness to be had on the 80+ Gold series PS Vertex PSUs. When it comes to pricing, we're looking at between $243 for the Seasonic PS Vertex GX-1000 ATX 3.0 1000W 80+ Gold PSU, $271 for the Seasonic PS Vertex PX-1000 ATX 3.0 1000W 80+ Platinum PSU, and then $281 for the Seasonic PS Vertex GX-1200 ATX 3.0 1200W 80+ Gold PSU, and then at the very top Seasonic's new PS Vertex PX-1200 ATX 3.0 1200W 80+ Platinum PSU for $319.

Cooler Master has just introduced its new CryoFuze Violet thermal paste, which does something a little different: it's colored purple.

Cooler Master's new CryoFuze Violet thermal paste, oooh... it's purple!

The new special purple-colored thermal paste from Cooler Master that better bonds to your PC hardware, with a nano-particle component that features improved thermal conductivity. The non-corrosive and oxidation-resistant formula was developed by Cooler Master for its new CryoFuze Violet thermal paste, and is capable of maintaining stability at -50C, and cook at up to as high as 240C (yeah, two hundred and forty degrees Celcius). Cooler Master says that the thermal transfer is rated at 12.6W/mK, making it a high-end thermal compound.

We have had regular-colored thermal paste for what feels like forever -- grey and silver for the most part -- but now Cooler Master is adding some color to an area that no one ever sees once they've used it. The new purple-colored themal paste in the form of the new CryoFuze Violet thermal compound hasn't got official pricing from Cooler Master, but we do have listings on Newegg already, with a cost for $30.99.

EK has announced its new EK-Quantum Velocity² water blocks which were engineered specifically for AMD's new AM5 socket and Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs.

The new EK-Quantum Velocity² water blocks feature EK-Matrix7 compatibility, just like its AM4-based predecessor, meaning its designed according to the standard where the product's height and port distance are managed in 7mm increments. EK is using a modified Velocity² cooling engine that's optimized for AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs to ensure the best cooling performance and optimal coolant flow.

AMD's fresh new AM5 socket still has the same 54 x 90mm mounting hole pattern, but there's a new mounting system required as AM5 motherboards now feature an integrated CPU socket backplate with #UNC 6-32 threads. EK has built its new AM5 water block on its Velocity² platform, with Velocity² water blocks being a socket-specific, high-performance cooling engine with low hydraulic flow restriction.

Aerocool has just unveiled a true surprise in the PC case market with the introduction of their new Skribble case, which features "drawable tempered glass front and side panels". Yeah... you can draw on them, with any design you choose to draw onto the Scribble case.

The glass side and front panels on the Aerocool Skribble PC case can be drawn onto with the included market inside of the box, so you can draw something onto the case right out of the box. Some of the designs that Aerocool is showing off look awesome, if that's the kind of design you wanted to go with.

The case itself features a regular-sized 210 x 453 x 441mm, where on top of the Aerocool Skribble you've got USB 3.0 ports, an LED control button, the usual 3.5mm audio ports, and a power button. But we do have a lack of USB-C connectivity, which is disappointing... especially as we're rushing into the last months of 2022.

EK is better known as a leader in the premium PC liquid cooling business, but have flexed out from that and announced their first external screen: the new EK-Quantum Lumen 7-inch LCD.

The new EK-Quantum Lumen 7-inch LCD screen is a beautifully stylish, and functional addition to any setup... but especially a fully-custom EK water-cooled rig. You can use the 7-inch display as an additional desktop on your OS, so you can have anything you want on it... but we all now you're going to display system information like CPU, GPU temps, and more.

EK is using an SVGA resolution on the EK-Quantum Lumen, with a resolution of 1024 x 600, the IPS display itself is 7 inches long which means you've got some good viewing angles and colors. The EK-Quantum Lumen connects to your PC with an included HDMI 2.0 cable, with an internal USB 2.0 Type-A port and another USB Type-C cable to connect the Luman to your PC as an external display.

MSI has officially unveiled its next-gen MEG Ai1300P power supply, the world's first ATX 3.0 compliant PSU with next-gen 600W PCIe 5.0 power connectors ready for next-gen GPUs of the future.

The new MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 PSU is the "ultimate future-proof power supply unit" says MSI, given that it rocks Intel's new ATX 3.0 specification that helps increase reliability, improve power efficiency, and allow next-gen graphics cards to chew down on 600W of power. ATX 3.0 was created in response to the growing needs of graphics cards, where they strive for more performance: and thus, more power.

ATX 3.0 puts "heavy emphasis on power excursions" which is something we've been hearing about for a while now, and something MSI says is there to "make sure high-performance graphics cards can be sustained and your system can remain stable. Thanks to ATX 3.0 there is now an increase in efficiency while idling and a new power connector is added to help achieve all the above. ATX 3.0 added a new PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector that features 12+4 pins instead of the traditional 6 or 8. With the new PCIe 5.0 connector, the power supply and cable can supply up to 600 watts of power".

EVGA has just unleashed one of the most insane PC chassis ever made, with the introduction of its new E1 Frame Set: a new open-air chassis that is for the EVGA lover in anyone.

The new EVGA E1 chassis comes in three different SKUs: the bare E1 Frame set and GPU vertical kit for $1600 which makes up "EVGA E1 Kit 2", while the "EVGA E1 Kit 1" throws in the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN and the free 1600W PSU that you get with it, for $3700.

EVGA wants to max out your credit card out with the monster "EVGA E1 Bare Bones" that includes everything that the E1 Kit 1 does, but also throws in the PowerLink 52u, the Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard, and a very, very awesome premium shipping case (that's worth $800 on its own). If you're building a brand new, super-high-end, all-EVGA system then that'll set you back $5000.