Computer Systems - Page 5

The Snapdragon Summit 2025 is currently underway in scenic Maui, where I've been invited to attend as a Snapdragon Insider. Although the latest Snapdragon hardware announcements are scheduled for tomorrow, which Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano R. Amon teased as being a game-changer for the AI era during his opening keynote address, there was one surprise reveal when he brought the Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Google on stage.

During an informal fireside chat, where the two discussed the long history between Qualcomm and Google (they even brought the first, and still working, Android phone on stage), they teased and announced an exciting new project currently in development. And that is a new line of computers or PCs that will be Android-driven for the AI era.

Now, these won't be Chromebooks (which run on ChromeOS), but instead full PCs that bring the Android ecosystem, Gemini AI, and next-generation Snapdragon chips together in a way that has made Android one of the most popular operating systems for smartphones. Yes, these will be Android PCs.

MSI has just introduced its new MPG Infinite Z3 X3D desktop gaming PC calling it the "Best X3D Gaming Desktop" so far, with up to the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, and ultra-fast GPUs including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards.

The new MPG Infinite Z3 X3D can be configured with either the Ryzen 7 9800X3D or 7800X3D processors, slotted inside of an AMD B850-based motherboard and the CPU cooled with a 360mm AIO liquid cooler. On the GPU side of things, MSI's new MPG Infinite Z3 X3D can be configured with NVIDIA's latest Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs.

GPU offerings include the MSI GeForce RTX 5070 SHADOW 2X and 3X or VENTUS 2X or 3X, the MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti in either SHADOW 3X or VENTUS 3X, the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 in either SHADOW 3X or VENTUS 3X, or the flagship MSI GeForce RTX 5090 in either VENTUS 3X or GAMING TRIO variants.

Minisforum teased its MS-S1 MAX Mini-PC AI workstation not too long ago, but now the company has shared more details about its new Mini-PC which packs AMD's new flagship Ryzen AI Max 395+ "Strix Halo" APU.

The new Minisforum MS-S1 MAX Mini-PC AI workstation is the company's first Strix Halo APU-powered system, featuring a built-in 320W PSU, and will ship with four different performance modes that span between 110W and 160W. Inside, there's the Ryzen AI Max 395+ "Strix Halo" APU which packs 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, an RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S integrated GPU, and support for up to 128GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory.

Minisforum handles cooling with a copper base and 6 heatpipes, dual fans, and phase change materials, with the MS-S1 MAX Mini-PC AI workstation handling thermal loads of up to 130W, with peaks of 160W, all without throttling performance. Minisforum includes dual USB4 v2 ports, dual 10GbE (such a great surprise), Wi-Fi 7, dual M.2 SSD slots, and more.

The new Commodore 64 Ultimate is a legitimate modern version of the classic computer, and the first release since enthusiasts and retro PC hardware aficionados acquired the iconic company. With production underway on the "first official Commodore 64 in over 30 years" and shipping expected to commence in November 2025, the Commodore 64 Ultimate is also set to arrive in a couple of stylish options.

On the high end, there's the Gold Founders Edition priced at $499.99 USD, inspired by the one millionth C64 gold PC that was created back in the day. For the Commodore 64 Ultimate, this includes 24k gold-plated badges, satin gold-colored keys, a translucent amber case, and a few additional goodies, such as a 24k gold 'dog tag' necklace.

On the more wallet-friendly side, there's the translucent Starlight Edition, priced at $349.99 USD, which includes a "game sound-reactive hidden-LED color-changing case" alongside the "world's first translucent mechanical keyboard PCB." For the purists, there's also a standard, old-school beige edition available for $299.99 USD.

Minisforum is preparing its new MS-S1 Max Mini Workstation, which looks to be the first Mini-PC system packing the new USB4 V2 standard which provides up to 80Gbps of bandwidth.

The upcoming Minisforum MS-S1 Max Mini AI workstation is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU that features 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, and a powerful RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S integrated GPU. Minisforum has its new Mini-PC workstation capped at 160W for peak workloads, all inside of a small 3.2L chassis.

If the RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S GPU isn't powerful enough for your liking, the Minisforum MS-S1 Max Mini AI workstation features support for dedicated graphics cards through a PCIe x16 slot, but without knowing how much clearance is inside, we don't know what type of GPU will fit... but the RTX 5090 is definitely ruled out at this size and PSU limits, obviously.

ASUS has just jacked up the pricing of its ROG NUC 2025 in flagship hardware form, with a $350 increase for the model containing the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU combo to $3199, up from $2849.

We reported last month that the ASUS ROG NUC 2025 configured with the Core Ultra 9 275HX + GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU combo was $2849, but this week that price was increased by the company to $3199.

The new ASUS ROG NUC 2025 is a small form factor gaming PC that packs up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor (24C/24T @ up to 5.4GHz) with support for up to 96GB of DDR5-6400 memory, and GPU options between the RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5070, and RTX 5060 all in Laptop GPU form.

MaxSun has just introduced its new ARL-HX Micro Station, a new mini AI workstation machine packed with all-Intel hardware, including an Arrow Lake-S processor and dual Arc PRO GPUs.

The new MaxSun ARL-HX Micro Station features an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24 cores @ up to 5.4GHz), dual PCIe Gen5 GPU support -- with up to 2 x Arc PRO B60 AI GPUs with 24GB VRAM each -- up to 256GB of DDR5 which is overclockable to 7200MT/s, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, alongside SlimSAS + PCIe x4 + 10GbE ethernet, and Wi-Fi 7.

This all fits into a 20L compact, purpose-built AI workstation system that sports a full metal chassis, with MaxSun designing the case with a bunch of potential for cooling.

Corsair has just launched its new AI Workstation 300 PC which features AMD's new Ryzen AI Max+ "Strix Halo" APUs, a new SFF desktop PC that packs up to 128GB of RAM, powerful Radeon 8060 graphics, and 4TB of Gen4 SSD storage.

The new Corsair AI Workstation 300 starts off at $1600 which gives you the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 which features 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5 processing power, 64GB of RAM and a 1TB Gen4 SSD. The flagship specs come inside of the $2300 model that features the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 16 cores and 32 threads, the flagship Strix Halo APU, a huge 128GB of RAM and bigger 4TB SSD.

Corsair builds its AI Workstation 300 into the same chassis designed by SIXUNITED, who recently also launched their new Strix Halo APU-ready motherboards, with the system featuring LPDDR5X-8000 RAM (64GB or 128GB), meaning the new Corsair AI Workstation 300 is optimized for more AI workloads.

ASUS has just launched its ExpertCenter Pro ET900N G3: its first desktop system powered by NVIDIA's new GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip. Check it out:

The new NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Desktop Superchip combines the Grace Arm-based CPU with NVIDIA's new GB300 Blackwell Ultra GPU, the same hardware combination that powers the new DGX Station announced earlier this year at GTC 2025.

We have up to 784GB of unified LPDDR5X and HBM3E memory inside of the new ASUS ExpertCenter Pro ET900N G3 system, with next-gen Tensor Cores with enhanced FP4 precision, making the ASUS ExpertCenter Pro ET900N G3 desktop supercomputer perfect for AI training, inference, and large-scale model deployment.

ASRock's DeskMini series of mini PCs offers a portable, ultra-compact solution designed for efficiency and performance, catering to businesses, students, enthusiasts, and those seeking a simple all-in-one PC gaming solution. ASRock has announced two new additions to its DeskMini lineup, the DeskMini X600 and DeskMini B860, powered by AMD and Intel hardware.

The new DeskMini X600 Series features AM5 Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series processors, paired with fast DDR5 memory clocked at 6400+ MHz. This new DeskMini is upgraded with a USB4 port, multiple M.2 SSD slots, and triple display support, covering USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort. AMD's portable AM5 Ryzen APUs include integrated Radeon and RDNA graphics, providing owners with an efficient and powerful device for both productivity and gaming.

The new DeskMini B860 Series includes support for Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, which all feature an NPU for lightweight AI workloads. These variants also include quad-video output over HDMI 2.1, two DisplayPort ports, and Thunderbolt 4.

Intel went through and, in some ways, is still in the midst of one of its biggest failures as a company when it was discovered that 13th and 14th-gen processors were encountering a myriad of issues, such as unstable behavior and crashes related to high-frequency instability, silicon quality, exceeding power draw beyond advertised specs, and degradation. All of these problems Intel sat on until owners gained enough attention that the company was forced to respond.

Intel attempted to mitigate the issue by rolling out several patches, but those didn't really work, and even today, the company is still having to deal with 13th and 14th gen customers trying to RMA their CPU over instability issues. A Firefox developer has revealed that crash reports of 13th and 14th gen CPUs have sharply increased recently, with the developer saying the rise in Raptor Lake crashes is associated with the rising temperatures in Europe and regions across the Northern Hemisphere. The developer said, "your machine is crashing more often because of the summer heat."

The developer goes on to say that Raptor Lake systems have known timing/voltage issues that are worse with increased temperatures. The developer goes on to say, "Things are so bad at this time we had to disable a bot that was filing crash reports automatically," due to the frequency at which the reports were coming in. It appears the voltage fluctuations within these Raptor Lake CPUs are increasing due to the heat in the region, resulting in more instability and, therefore, crashes.

If you're a Hatsune Miku anime fan, then ASUS has the goods for you with the introduction of its new co-branded hardware series starting with the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 O16G Hatsune Miku Special Edition graphics card.

Hatsune Miku is a "virtual" pop star from Japan, created back in 2007 by Crypton Future Media using voice synthesis software, portrayed as a teenage girl with turquoise twin-tails. She has gotten more and more popular over the years, has been performing 3D hologram concerts, fan-made projects, and collaborating with various brands, games, and artists.

The aesthetics of the new hardware is impressive, with the beautiful blue-green and pink Miku color scheme spread out across the graphics card on the cover, sides, and back panel. ASUS dons a huge quad-fan design on the card with three fans on the front and one on the back, just like the original ROG Astral RTX 5080. ASUS has added a vapor chamber with a milled heatspreader, phase-change GPU thermal pad, and powerful 50A MOSFETs.

MaxSun is preparing its new MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) system, with an array of all-Intel hardware with up to the Core Ultra 9 285HX and dual Arc Pro B60 GPUs.

The new MaxSun Mini Station is a new MoDT system that is powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 200HX series CPUs, with the new Mini Station packing up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, and dual Arc Pro B60 GPUs. The CPUs are pre-installed onto the motherboard, so there will be no user upgrades down the path.

There was a demo system of MaxSun's new Mini Station PC presented at the Bilibili World 2025, showcasing dual Arc Pro B60 graphics cards. The demo system was powered by Arc Pro B60 Milestone graphics cards, which look very similar to the Arc B580 gaming graphics cards.

NVIDIA is preparing to launch its new DGX Spark, a new mini supercomputer with a huge 1000 TOPS of AI workload power and a cost of $4000.

In a new report from Taiwan Economic Daily, we're hearing that NVIDIA is preparing its new DGX Spark mini supercomputer for a retail launch this month, with AIB partners like ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE to soon introduce their own DGX Spark mini supercomputer to the market.

Inside, the new DGX Spark uses NVIDIA's new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which has been optimized into a desktop form factor. NVIDIA's new GB10 features a powerful NVIDIA Blackwell GPU with fifth-generation Tensor Cores and FP4 support, with 1000 TOPS of AI compute power for fine-tuning and inference with the latest AI reasoning models, including the NVIDIA Cosmos Reason world foundation model and NVIDIA GR00T N1 robot foundation model.

UPDATE - ASUS let us know that the GX10 will be announced on July 22, but it won't be available then. The release of the product will come at a later date.

ASUS has confirmed that its new AI supercomputer, the Ascent GX10, will be launching on July 22. The new ASUS Ascent GX10 is powered by NVIDIA's new GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip, and acts as a powerful AI workstation that sits on your desk.

The new ASUS Ascent GX10 is a small Mini-PC workstation that is tailored towards AI development and inference workloads, packing NVIDIA's new Grace CPU and Blackwell GPU inside of a unified GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip. The Ascent GX10 will be configured with 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, PCIe Gen5 connectivity, NVMe SSD, and a custom cooling solution.

AOOSTAR has officially teased its new NEX395 Mini-PC system powered by AMD's new flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU.

The upcoming AOOSTAR NEX395 Mini-PC has quite an interesting design that features a thinner, longer chassis that is more of a compact rectangle than other Mini-PCs powered by the powerful new Strix Halo APU. The company teases that it's using a dual-fan cooling system that should help cool the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor inside, but we can't see much of that thermal system from the single image shown.

On the I/O side of things, the new AOOSTAR NEX395 Mini-PC features a single USB-C port on the front, while on the rear we have DisplayPort, an HDMI port, 4 x USB-A 2.0 ports, another USB-C port, and two RJ45 ethernet ports.

A user has created his own SFF system using the Framework modular PC, which is powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU, into a 7.5L fanless chassis, check it out:

The custom fanless project was crafted by SFF Network member "TheJiral" who called it the Monochrome 2, who used Framework's new modular Desktop PC, which TheJiral used as the building blocks of his custom SFF system. The Framework Desktop Motherboard is powered by AMD's new flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU, which TheJiral had paired with 64GB of RAM.

This was a personal passion project by TheJiral, who built the 7.5L fanless chassis ahead of time before the Framework Desktop Motherboard even arrived. AMD's new Strix Halo APU features a 120W TDP, but TheJiral made sure to over- compensate with 140W of cooling capacity, ready for the 16C/32T chip to be maxed out at all times, but run fine passively cooled.

Abee is a company most people haven't heard of, but they're reportedly working on a new Mini-PC AI system that packs AMD's new flagship Strix Halo APU. Check it out:

The new Abee AI Station features AMD's new flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU which packs 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power at up to 5.1GHz, with the full 128GB of RAM and powerful RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S integrated GPU at up to 2.9GHz.

Interestingly, the new Abee AI Station packs a built-in liquid cooling solution, and a built-in power supply. The new Mini-PC has up to 96GB of RAM allocated to the Radeon 8060S, meaning that not only is it a Mini-PC AI system, but a powerful gaming system between the 16C/32T CPU and 40 CUs of RDNA 3.5-powered Radeon 8060S graphics.

The new COLORFUL SMART 900 AI Mini PC boasts a sleek industrial design and features a 4-liter form factor, making it a Mini PC with some seriously impressive hardware and capabilities. Powered by the new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, with 16 cores, 32 threads, and clock speeds hitting 5.1 GHz, the APU also features a powerful NPU and Radeon 8060S graphics.

The NPU is capable of delivering up to 50 TOPS of AI performance for generative workloads, which is why COLORFUL is marketing the device toward students and professionals. The unit's size might be small, but you're looking at desktop-class performance in a compact form factor.

The integrated Radeon 8060S graphics, based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, features 40 Compute Units, a higher CU count than discrete GPUs like the new Radeon RX 9060 XT. The GPU performance of the COLORFUL SMART 900 AI Mini PC will rival that of discrete mobile graphics, making it a powerful yet compact PC gaming device that is smaller than a console.

ASUS has officially announced its ROG NUC 2025 Mini-PC which has been in the headlines for months now, with some high-end hardware inside with up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU. Check it out:

The company offers its new ROG NUC 2025 with not one, but four GPU options including the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, and finally, the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU. CPU-wise, ASUS offers two different CPU variants with the Core Ultra 9 275HX and Core Ultra 7 255HX, both based on Arrow Lake-HX.

ASUS supports up to 96GB of DDR5-6400 memory inside of the ROG NUC 2025, while the thermal system includes a triple-fan cooling design and dual vapor chambers for the CPU and GPU. There's support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, but unfortunately, we don't have any Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.