Computer Systems - Page 9

AYANEO has been creating highly sought-after portable gaming handhelds and mini PCs for several years - and it feels like the company is always cooking up something tasty. Its products aren't exclusively Windows PC-based; the upcoming Android-based AYANEO Pocket EVO sports a 120 Hz 1080p OLED display powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Gaming Platform.

The AYANEO Pocket EVO looks incredible, and its stunning design could make it the portable Android device of choice for gamers. But, the company has something else in the works - a brand-new flagship with the codename AYANEO 3. This is the company's new flagship gaming handheld and its third-gen product in this category.

Although we don't have any official looks at the handheld or its technical specifications, that hasn't stopped AYANEO from going all out to hype this thing. The AYANEO 3 will present a "technological leap" forward for gaming handhelds, but it "aims to change the way we interact with games."

SteamOS 3.6.19 is Valve's latest Stable Release of the operating system, which is available on its Steam Deck line of gaming handhelds. And it's a pretty big one, so be sure to update if you've got a Deck. It updates the OS to the more recent Arch Linux base and the Linux kernel to version 6.5 for improved performance, stability, security, and compatibility.

The patch notes for the update are at the end of this article. There's a lot of ground to cover, so we'll give you the highlights. The big one for PC gamers is the new Mesa 24.1 graphics driver, which brings overall improvements to game performance, faster boost times for the handheld, and a more responsive Steam UI.

The presentation has also improved with brightness uniformity for the display and improved color balance at lower brightness levels. Battery life while gaming is also improving specifically for Steam Deck OLED owners, thanks to the latest SteamOS release plugging a 'memory leak.'

If you had any doubts about Apple's intention to launch a bunch of new M4 Macs by the end of October - as strongly rumored for ages - cast those doubts aside now, as the firm has confirmed new devices are coming next week.

Apple's marketing bigwig, Greg Joswiak, announced this on X with a cheeky little pun that we should 'Mac' our calendars for an "exciting week of announcements ahead" starting on Monday morning, October 28.

So, from that we can gather that there isn't going to be a big press event, although when the invites failed to emerge earlier this month, that became clear enough anyway.

GMK has shown off its new EVO-X1 Mini-PC which is powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, as well as an OCulink port for external GPUs.

The new GMK EVO-X1 Mini-PC is larger than the regular-sized 4x4 NUC-sized Mini-PC, where inside we've got the AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 "Strix Point" APU joined by LPDDR5X-7500 memory, and the OCulink connector. The Strix Point APU has a built-in NPU for AI workloads offering up to 50 TOPS of AI performance, while the RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 890M at 2900MHz GPU boost.

The company explained on its website: "GMKtec, together with the continuous winner of the German Red Dot Award, has created the EVO-X1 with dedication, polishing every detail to perfection Creating excellence, exploring and innovating, 'EVO-X1 Evolver Opens up a New Era'. GMKtec EVO-X1 HX370, equipped with AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 processor, supports AMD Ryzen™ AI, NPU power up to 50 TOPS, AMD Radeon™ 890M, 16 cores/2900MHZ/RDNA 3.5, LPDDR5X 7500MHz, independent Oculink interface. The new look, stay tuned!".

YEYIAN Gaming has just launched multiple new Gaming PCs powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 200S series "Arrow Lake" processors, check them out:

We have three new configurations that include Premium, Advanced, and Performance-Focused Gaming PCs that feature Intel's new Core Ultra 9, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 5 processors. There are varying amounts of RAM, storage, GPUs, power supplies, and cooling inside of the new YEYIAN gaming PCs, with 12 different configurations to choose from.

YEYIAN's new premium Gaming PC features the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor, a higher-end GeForce RTX 4080 16GB graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and a 2TB Gen4 SSD. The company includes multiple RGB fans pre-installed into the system, with a meshed pane for increased airflow.

The Kickstarter page for the new Lunar 2-in-1 Foldable Keyboard & Mini PC is now live. The unique device is available starting from $579 USD, and the ultra-compact pocket-sized PC sports some impressive specs. It features the impressive AMD Ryzen 7 8840U processor, with up to 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, and around six hours of battery life (or 8 to 10 in light office scenarios). It also has a lightweight build, weighing 800 grams.

The key idea is that you've got a mini PC in the form of a keyboard. You unfold it, place it on a desk, connect it to a display, and you're good to go. The keyboard includes a trackpad, so there's no need for a mouse, and when fully unfolded, it is 29cm long - slightly smaller than a compact TKL keyboard. When folded, this halves to around 15cm with a thickness of 3cm.

The crowdfunding Kickstarter campaign offers several discounted models and configurations, and global shipping is expected to commence in January 2025. The fully decked-out 32GB of RAM and 1 TB storage variant is available for $769.

If you bought an Apple iMac with the original M1 chip a couple of years back, a new problem that's reared its head with these all-in-one PCs may be some cause for concern.

There are a growing number of reports on Apple's support forum from owners of iMacs that are around the two-year-old mark - and out of warranty - suddenly developing a serious issue with the screen (mind you, some of the reported problems are occuring with machines that are newer).

This manifests itself in the form of a bunch of thin, black horizontal lines across a section of the display which is every bit as awful as it sounds in terms of pretty much ruining the desktop experience. In some reported cases, the black lines are obscuring more than half of the screen.

Known Apple insider and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has penned in his latest Power On newsletter the dates for Apple's upcoming announcement of its new M4-powered Mac lineup and when it will be released.

Gurman, who has established a known reputation for knowing the inner workings of the Cupertino company, wrote in the latest edition of his newsletter that Apple is planning on announcing its new lineup of M4 Macs at the end of October, with release slated for the first week of November. More specifically, Apple will be launching a new M4 version of its low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, along with higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models that will feature the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.

The Bloomberg reporter also mentioned Apple is planning on rolling out M4-powered desktop Macs, but they won't be arriving this year as Apple has reportedly planned their release for mid-2025. Apple is also planning refreshes for its Mac Mini lineup in M4 and M4 Pro chip configurations, along with an M4 refresh of the iPad mini. Gurman predicts all of the aforementioned products will be announced by Apple at the end of October, and some of them will be available on November 1.

HP's upcoming Omen 35L is the first desktop gaming PC with Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPUs, with up to the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K.

The company has confirmed that its upcoming Omen 35L will feature up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor with 24 cores and 24 threads (no Hyper-Threading). The Core Ultra 9 285K will run with a boost clock of up to 5.7GHz and feature 36MB of cache.

HP's new Omen 35L can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, up to NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, up to Kingston FURY 64GB DDR5-4000 (DDR5-4000 feels like an error, we'll see if HP updates it) "plus AI features" that will make HP's new OMEN components make it powerful, as well as easy to upgrade and customize.

Apple's MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac computers with the M4 SoC inside could be arriving slightly later than we thought in 2024.

MacRumors highlighted a new report from leaker Mark Gurman (of Bloomberg fame) where he was more vague about the timing of the launch of these M4-toting Macs.

Previously, Gurman has talked about the M4 Macs arriving at an Apple press event held in October, but in his latest newsletter, the leaker has cast doubt on the accuracy of this prediction by referring to these devices as arriving 'this year.'

MSI is cooking up its new MEG Vision X AI pre-built PC that will feature Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors, and NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" gaming GPUs.

The company teased its new MEG Vision X AI pre-built PC earlier this year at Computex 2024, but now more details have surfaced and what we'll find inside of the system. The details of the MEG Vision X AI pre-built PC were revealed during MSI's recent factory tour in Shenzhen, China, with reports teasing we'll see two major components inside.

The first, is Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPU, where we should expect multiple SKUs on offer inside of the MSI MEG Vision X AI pre-built PC, right up to the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor (24 cores, 24 threads, at up to 5.7GHz).

ASUS has just launched its new NUC 14 Pro AI codenamed Lunar Canyon, featuring Intel's just-released Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors, and it even has a dedicated Copilot+ button on the front.

The new ASUS NUC 14 Pro AI features up to Intel's new flagship Core Ultra 9 288V processor, with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 on-package memory (no more SO-DIMM, Lunar Lake shifts RAM to on-package with the Lunar Lake SoC). A huge step backwards, because the ROG 14 Pro+ featured an Intel Core Ultra 100 series "Meteor Lake" CPU and supported up to 96GB of DDR-5600 SO-DIMM memory. The new NUC 14 Pro AI is limited to only 32GB of RAM.

ASUS hasn't been too upfront about the specs of its new NUC 14 Pro AI system, but we do know it has Xe2 "Battlemage" integrated graphics with 50% more gaming performance over Meteor Lake, M.2 2280 SSD support, 2.5GbE ethernet, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Cooler Master's Shark X design, by Inony from Thailand, is an impressive mod and custom case and build that first debuted at the 2019 Cooler Master Case Mod World Series. Just like the Cooler Master custom Sneaker X PC, the Shark X design is being put into production, and pre-orders are now open.

Hardware-wise, it includes the Intel Core i7-14700F processor, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics, 64GB of DDR5 6000 memory, 2TB of PCI Gen4 NVMe SSD storage, and a B760I DDR5 WIFI motherboard. Now, at $6,999.99 USD, it's an expensive rig, and for that price, you'd probably expect a flagship CPU and GPU combo: a 14900K and GeForce RTX 4090.

However, like with the Sneaker X, a lot of the money here comes down to Cooler Master being able to manufacture several Shark X rigs, where every aspect comes from a custom mod, so there's nothing really off-the-shelf about the chassis. Also, there are limitations in what can be installed due to size restrictions, as it's as much of an art piece as a PC.

Apple is closing in on the reveal of the iPhone 16 line-up, and rumors indicate that the company will showcase its new Mac Mini powered by an M4 chip the following month.

The upcoming Apple event is scheduled for September 9, and is expected to also feature reveals for the Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods Pro 3. But in October, according to the latest Power On newsletter by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's upcoming M4 Mac Mini will be unveiled and it will drop all USB-A ports in favor of USB-C ports. It was only last week that Gurman teased the upcoming Mac Mini was going to have at least three USB-C ports on its rear.

This week, the Bloomberg reporter has confirmed it will feature three USB-C ports on the back and two on the front, for a total of five USB-C ports. In addition to the USB-C ports, the new Mac Mini will also feature a HDMI and Ethernet port. Previous specification expectations of the coming Mac Mini include an estimated height of 1.4 inches, the M4 chip being 50% faster than the M2, a 10-core GPU, Dynamic Caching, and hardware ray-tracing. The new Mac Mini was described as "essentially an iPad Pro in a small box".

The Apple-1 Computer was developed and conceived by Steve Jobs and Steve 'Woz' Wozniak in the mid-1970s as a complete hobbyist kit. It was also one of the first 'personal computers' you could buy, as it didn't require any soldering or additional components - even though the exposed board makes it look like a prototype.

Not many Apple-1 Computers were produced, and even fewer still exist in working order today - many were traded in for an Apple II. One of them, which belonged to an early Apple employee named Dana Redington, was recently put up for auction, where it sold for $315,914 USD.

"In early 1978, while preparing for a move to a new building, I noticed a pile of soon-to-be-discarded Apple I boards," Dana Redington says of the working Apple-1 Computer. "Apple had offered a trade-in program for upgrading to the Apple II to help phase out the older board. With Wozniak and Jobs' permission, I selected the best motherboard and a couple of cassette interface cards from the pile."

There's already a mini PC packing a flagship (Strix Point) AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor kicking about, albeit a pre-release model, but it has been reviewed - and the results are impressive.

VideoCardz reports that ETA Prime on YouTube grabbed the scoop here and put the compact prototype from SOUYO through its gaming paces, with the integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics (featuring a beefy 16 CUs) in the HX 370 carving out some nicely smooth frame rates.

Okay, so the caveat here is that in 1080p resolution, the graphics are on low settings (or sometimes medium) - and FSR kicks up the frame rate, too - but still, you get a decent enough image quality, and a fluid 60 FPS across a range of games.

A new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has revealed more details about Apple's upcoming M4 Mac Mini, with the report stating Apple is about to make its biggest design change to its smallest computer offering.

According to the report, Apple's upcoming M4 Mac Mini will arrive in at least three different models, each sporting at least three USB-C's on the back, an HDMI port, and a power cable. In terms of design, Gurman was told the M4 Mac Mini is "essentially an iPad Pro in a small box," and the box will measure around 1.4 inches in height, making it the smallest desktop computer Apple has ever offered.

As for specifics about the M4 chip, reports indicate it will arrive with a powerful new CPU that has four performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. Additionally, the M4 is reportedly 50% faster than the M2. The new chip will also come with a 10-core GPU, Dynamic Caching, and hardware ray-tracing - all of which will be 4x faster than the M2 iPad Pro. As for the Neural Engine, reports indicate it will be a 16-core design that is capable of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple's first Neural Engine.

Lenovo has just launched its new YOGA Portal Ultimate PC to fight the Apple Mac Studio system, powered by a desktop Intel LGA1700 socket and desktop NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics. Check it out:

The new Lenovo YOGA Portal Ultimate PC is aimed at the Chinese market, inside powered with an Intel Core i7-14700 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics. The global market version of the Neo Ultra variant features up to an Intel Core i9-14900 processor and RTX 4060 graphics, so the Chinese version has a less powerful CPU, but much more powerful GPU.

Lenovo isn't using the Laptop GPU variant of the GeForce RTX 4070, but the actual full desktop RTX 4070. Lenovo's new YOGA Portal Ultimate PC can have its CPU swapped out because the company is using Intel's desktop LGA1700 socket, but the GPU might be a harder upgrade given that the custom cooling inside of the system is designed for this form factor.

Alright, this new Telsa Cybertruck Mini-PC is the coolest thing I've seen today: inside, featuring the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS "Hawk Point" APU and you even press the hood of the system to power it on.

Taku Udon has now reviewed the new Cybertruck Mini-PC, and instead of looking like a regular -- but modded -- PC, it looks like a Tesla Cybertruck RC that is actually a PC. We're talking about having shock absorbers; all four doors can be opened, and you can even steer the wheels. Oh yeah, the trunk has an expanding ramp because you'll never use it, but it's there. So cool.

Under the Cybertruck's rear bumper, you'll find all of the connectors hidden away, with the power button hidden under the front shock absorbers. This means you'll have to press the truck down to start the PC, which is so cool to hear.

GEEKOM has just unveiled its new Mega Mini G1 PC: an interestingly designed Mini-PC that would look crazy good on any gaming desk.

The new GEEKOM Mega Mini G1 is a futuristically-styled new Mini-PC that measures 250 x 150 x 150mm, already showcased at MWC and Computex earlier this year, it's now bigger and will be shown in prototype form at IFA in September. Inside, GEEKOM will pack up to an Intel Core i9-13900H processor (14 cores, 22 threads) with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 discrete GPU.

GEEKOM includes OCulink connectivity, so if you wanted faster GPU performance than what the RTX 4060 is capable of, you can hook up an external graphics card with far more power. GEEKOM says that the RTX 4060 GPU inside of its new Mega Mini G1 PC runs at up to 120W, showing some performance metrics to back up those claims: