Computer Systems News - Page 1

Potential buyers of Apple's very best Macs should probably wait a little while before picking up a new one because a new report claims that the company has something new on the horizon.

A new report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple is now testing new versions of its Apple silicon with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips in the works. And with WWDC taking place on June 5, we can only imagine that there will be a new high-end Mac or two on the docket.

Apple is already expected to announce the 15-inch MacBook Air during the event on Monday, but Gurman has previously said that several new Macs are on the way. In a new report, Gurman says that Apple is planning two new Macs which are labeled internally as Mac 14,13 and Mac 14,14. Gurman believes that the two Macs are running multiple chips including the M2 Max that was announced in January 2022. The other chip is thought to be another high-end chip, likely to be called the M2 Ultra.

When putting together a new PC build for gaming, cable management might be low on your list - but it quickly becomes a genuine hurdle as soon as you connect that first cable from the motherboard to your power supply. From there, things can quickly get out of hand regarding cables, with just about every device requiring some pinned connection to go live.

The AORUS Stealth 500 from GIGABYTE is a gaming PC where you don't see any cables.

At Computex 2023, taking a tour through GIGABYTE's product line-up, we had the opportunity to take a closer look at the company's new concept - the AORUS Stealth 500. Specs-wise, it features all of the components you'd consider standard for a modern gaming rig. A Z690 AORUS ELITE Stealth motherboard, a GeForce RTX 3070 GAMING OC Stealth graphics card, and an RGB-lit and stylish AORUS C500 GLASS chassis.

Looking through the side panel, you'll notice one thing missing - cables. All of these are hidden, including the connector to the custom GeForce RTX 4070, outside of the pump for the AIO CPU cooler. GIGABYTE notes that the Cable Stealth Design isn't simply about delivering a cable-free look that is fantastic to witness in person. It's a system that is designed to simplify cable management and component installation.

ZOTAC has announced the Magnus One, an extremely powerful all-new desktop PC with upgraded graphics and CPU performance.

Following the release of NVIDIA's newest graphics card line-up, the RTX 40-series powered by the cutting-edge Ada Lovelace architecture, ZOTAC has rolled out a new and improved lineup of its Zbox desktop PCs. Introducing the Magnus One ERP74070C, which features the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 12GB GDDR6X and an Intel Core i7-13700 Processor (16-core 2.1 GHz, up to 5.2 GHz). Notably, the Magnus one supports two DDR5-5600/5200 SO-DIMM Memory slots, one M.2 NVMe PCle x4 SSD slot, one M.2 NVMe PCle x4 / SATA SSD slot, and a 2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps HDD/SSD slot.

The specs don't stop there, as ZOTAC has equipped the Magnus One with a killer 2.5Gbps Ethernet port and one Gigabit Ethernet port. Furthermore, the Magnus One comes with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 support, along with a single UHS-II SDHC/SDXC card reader for content creators as well as three DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.1a for a maximum of four possible displays used simultaneously. If you were wondering about connectivity, ZOTAC has outfitted the Magnus One with one Thunderbolt 4, four USB 3.1 ports, and four USB 3.0 ports.

ZOTAC has walked me through the very impressive Zbox Pico mini PC, which features AirJet solid state active cooling.

Computex 2023 has kicked off with a bang, and I was lucky enough to get a complete walkthrough of the ZOTAC booth, where I was introduced to the Zbox Pico, a palm-sized PC that features an impressive cooling solution. ZOTAC explained to me that typically in the past, its previous mini PC used Pentium or Celeron processors, while the newer model, as pictured above, is the first to feature an Intel Core i3 processor.

This upgrade in power can be attributed to the AirJet solid state active cooling, which is able to reduce the amount of heat produced and, thus, enabling a higher-end processor to be implemented. These solid state cooling chips are able to draw in air from the side, reducing the internal temperature of the mini-PC, and then spitting out the hot air through the other side out its exhaust, as displayed by the blurry fan shown above. ZOTAC explained to me that typically in the past, these systems would feature heat sinks, but since the emergence of solid state cooling chips, they are no longer necessary in this particular build.

Zotac will be on hand at Computex 2023, showcasing several new products, with one of the highlights being a range of new ZBOX Mini PC products. As per the headline, one of these is set to be tiny - with the ZBOX PI430AJ with AirJet being hailed as the world's first solid state active-cooled Mini PC.

ZBOX PI430AJ with AirJet cooling, the world's smaller Mini PC, image credit: Zotac.

AirJet is a new revolutionary bit of technology from Frore System, with Zotac noting that in the ZBOX PI430AJ, two AirJet Minis can remove a significant amount of heat thanks to their rapid airflow. Small and silent, users can boost performance with increased thermal limits to make the most out of the internal hardware. And all without increasing the unit's overall size - which, per the imagery, looks like a small external USB drive.

Hardware-wise, it features an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of LPDDR5 memory, and M.2 SSD storage in a pocket-sized PC.

Anyone worrying that Apple is going to kill the Mac Studio powerhouse desktop machine after just one release looks to have been doing so prematurely. A new report claims that Apple is not just working on refreshing the product, but it's also said to have two of the things in the works.

Apple Mac Studio in use - Source: apple.com

That means that Apple could be about to update the Mac Studio for the very first time, although details on what that will entail have so far been very hard to come by. We don't even know for sure when either of the two Mac Studios will arrive, but the fact that they're even being discussed is good news for many.

The Mac Studio first debuted a little over a year ago in 2022 and can be configured with a maximum M1 Ultra chip. However, with Apple thought to be keen to ship its first Apple silicon Mac Pro, it was worried that the Mac Studio wasn't long for this world. The Mac studio was considered to be something of a stop-gap solution for Apple, allowing it to offer something for high-end power-hungry users who didn't want to wait for that Mac Pro to ship.

ChatGPT can be put to a lot of uses, as we've seen - such as its recent introduction to gaming chat platform Discord - and the latest one is the AI being recruited to help consumers build a PC over at major US retailer Newegg.

The AI-powered PC Builder tool is still in beta testing (Image Credit: Newegg)

In fact, Newegg is putting the AI's skills to use for a raft of things across the retailer's site, but primarily to beef up the PC Builder tool, which is now labeled as 'Build with AI' - and a clear caveat that this is still a beta experience.

As you might expect, if you want to put together a PC, ChatGPT will help provide recommendations for various components that will go together well, or fit a certain budget.

The new ASRock DeskMini 4205 might be a Mini PC designed for commercial use thanks to its all-in-one fanless and efficient design powered by the Intel Celeron Processor 4205U. Still, the optional RGB add-ons make it a great home theatre option.

ASRock DeskMini 4205, image credit: ASRock

Though on that front, this Mini PC is limited to DisplayPort 1.2, but that's still capable of 4K 120 Hz with 10-bit color.

The ASRock DeskMini 4205 features dual LAN ports, support for three displays, and four bits of storage - two M.2 2280 PCIe slots and two 2.5" SATA 6Gbps. Three simultaneous displays, as per ASRock, make it a great fit for "digital signage and advertising."

Aston Martin is renowned for creating high-performance automobiles with a focus on style and luxury - and the brand has been the vehicle of choice for fictional spy James Bond for decades. Lenovo, which has been in the PC game for quite a while, creating products for enthusiasts, everyday consumers, and businesses for years, has partnered with Aston Martin for its new range of ThinkStation PX, P7, and P5 workstations.

Lenovo ThinkStation PX, P7, and P5 workstations.

These high-powered machines are designed for high-compute workloads, equipped with up to 120-core Intel Xeon processors, NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs, and beefy 1850W PSUs.

So instead of pushing Call of Duty to triple-digit frame rates in native 4K, they're more likely to be used for machine learning, scientific research, engineering, virtual production, and other applications where workstations sit at the core of cutting-edge computing.

After months and months of hearing nothing about a new 24-inch iMac to replace the 2021 M1 model, a new report claims that Apple will now refresh it sooner rather than later.

Yellow M1 iMac - Image source: apple.com

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing as part of the weekly Power On newsletter, says that Apple is hard at work getting an M3 version of the colorful computer ready for primetime. And the big release could be sooner than we had previously expected.

Gurman says that Apple is now testing an updated version of the current M1 iMac that looks the same and comes in the same colors. That also means that it will come in the same 24-inches screen size, too.