The customer, who owned an Asus RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, went to Cooler Master's support team to complain about their MWE Gold V2 1250-watt power supply's integrated right-angled 12V-2x6 power cable not working with their graphics card's power connector. The connector was allegedly offset inside the graphics card, preventing the cable from plugging in correctly.

Despite the customer requesting a different cable design to be shipped to them, Cooler Master customer support recommended the customer do the unthinkable, and jerry rig their existing 12V-2x6 power cable to make it work. Customer service recommended that they disconnect to remove two clips on either side of the power connector to free it from its external housing, so it would fit inside the GPU's own power connector. The external cover is what makes the cable right-angled, so removing it essentially turns the cable into a standard straight power cable.

Luckily, the customer was smart enough not to dismantle their existing power connector and instead bought a third-party cable from Cablemod, solving the connectivity issue and inevitably freeing the customer's RTX 5070 Ti from a fiery death.

Ironically, Igor's Lab reports that the modification Cooler Master's customer service recommended would not have solved the problem anyway. The problem is that removing the two clips holding the external housing of the cable together does not reduce the physical connector's flatness, which is the actual problem. Even with the "removable" cover removed, the internal housing juts outward and interferes with the GPU cooler. Igor's Lab tested the cable on an MSI RTX 5090 Suprim and had the same compatibility issue.

This wouldn't be a problem if Cooler Master's quality control department had caught sight of the error when it was initially designed. Igor's Lab points out that Cooler Master's cables' internal housing is not long enough to allow the connector to be fully recessed into the GPU power connector. Igor's Lab compared Nvidia's reference 12V-2x6 power adapter with the cable and discovered the Cooler Master connector's housing is 3.2mm shorter than the Nvidia one. Nvidia's adapter is built explicitly for the CEM 5.1 standard, so it can be used as a solid reference point.

Removing the right-angle cover from the original Cooler Master cable might not sound like a bad idea; however, these 12V-2x6 connectors are so delicate that bending the wires straight can wreak havoc with the internal integrity of the pins themselves. If you've read any of our previous coverage on the 12V-2x6 or 12VHPWR power connector, you'll know that subtle movements of the pins inside can increase electrical resistance, which can increase the chance of a fire or meltdown.

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One of the first things that jumps out is the 5-inch full-color LCD screen, which can show hardware information, Asus animations, and your own customized images. The all-black theme is accented with a silver/chrome-like ROG symbol and “Extreme” branding on the large plate heatsink at the bottom. Along the edge, all except two USB-C front panel connections are hidden under a shroud that runs the length of the board. A plethora of buttons and switches along the bottom also lets you know that it’s not your average motherboard.

The Crosshair Extreme offers three PCIe 5.0 M.2 sockets, with the primary one hidden under an oversized heatsink that ensures cooler-running devices below. The DIMM.2 socket appears next to the DRAM slots, adding two more M.2 (PCIe 4.0) slots for a total of five PCIe drives. Looking for Slim SAS for exotic storage? It’s got that. Fast networking, high-end audio, and robust power delivery are just some of what else is onboard.

Do you want to really push the limits? There are buttons and switches designed to navigate the perils of extreme cooling, or you can use Asus’ AI Software suite to get the most out of your system. And as we’d expect from a flagship board, performance was solid throughout all our tests, whether gaming, rendering, encoding, or basic Office functions.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details, and showcase our benchmark results, which earn the board a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we get to all that, here is the extensive list of the board’s specifications from Asus’ website.

Specifications of the Asus Crosshair X870E Extreme

Inside the Box of the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme

With the Extreme, Asus includes a plethora of accessories designed to enhance connectivity and improve the initial build experience. You get all the basics, from SATA cables to Wi-Fi antennas, thermal pads, thermistors, a VRM fan, and, of course, the Q-DIMM.2 add-in card. There’s plenty to get you going. Below is the long list of all the included extras – including the important RoG bottle opener.

• 1-to-3 ARGB splitter cable
• 1-to-2 ARGB splitter cable
• (2) 1-to-4 fan splitter cable
• (2) ROG weave SATA 6G cable packages
• 3-in-1 Thermistor cables pack
• M.2 pad package for ROG Q-DIMM.2
• (2) thermal pad for ROG Q-DIMM.2
• (2) thermal pad for M.2 22110
• DDR5 Fan holder
• ROG Fan Kit
• ASUS WiFi Q-Antenna
• Q-connector
• ROG logo plate sticker
• ROG screwdriver
• ROG stickers
• ROG VIP card
• M.2 Q-Slide package
• M.2 backplate rubber packages
• ROG Bottle Opener
• USB drive with utilities and drivers
• Quick start guide

Design of the Crosshair X870E Extreme

The Crosshair Extreme’s design exudes premium vibes. It sports an all-black look (matte-black PCB) with silver/chrome reflective accents. It’s relatively conservative for a flagship-class board, but still looks great. Standing out from the other boards is the large 5-inch full-color LCD screen integrated into the VRM heatsink. MSI’s X870E Godlike has a smaller 4-inch display, despite costing more. Overall, the Crosshair Extreme’s stealthy black appearance suits the high-end positioning and is sure to complement most build themes.

On the top left, we get a better look at the 5-inch LCD panel, which can slide to the right for increased rear fan compatibility. You can configure the LCD to display system information, use one of Asus’ included backgrounds, or add your own custom JPG. All of this is configurable in Armoury Crate. The VRM heatsink spans across the top, sharing the load with U-shaped heat pipes connecting the two parts. Above the heatsink are two ProCool II-enabled 8-pin EPS power connectors for the processor.

One of the next items we encounter is the first three (of nine) 4-pin fan/pump headers, one of which is specifically for the included, but optional, VRM fan. Per usual, the board controls PWM- and DC-controlled devices through the headers and the Armoury Crate and Fan Expert 4 software. The CPU, Chassis, Rad, and VRM headers output up to 1A/12W, while the pump headers are both good for 3A/36W each. There should be plenty of headers and power available for your cooling needs.

Next to the fan header is the ROG Probelt, with 12 holes in the motherboard for measuring your system voltage using a multimeter. It covers all kinds of voltages, including VCore/Mem/SOC/Misc, and more. These are cool, but novel additions unless you’re an extreme overclocker, where knowing the actual voltage (without software that can be inaccurate) is key.

Below those two features are four NitroPath-enabled DRAM slots with an easily accessible single locking mechanism located at the top. Asus lists support up to DDR5-8200 for desktop processors (9000 series), but even faster for 8000 series APUs (to 9200 MT/s). If you have PMIC-restricted modules (i.e., no profiles), the AEMP feature should be helpful, as will the flexibility provided by DIMM FIT Pro for increased memory optimization. All that said, if you’re breaking records for memory only, the two-slot boards like the Apex (or ITX boards) are where you’ll probably want to look first. Still, you’ll get plenty of memory speed out of the Extreme, and if you need four stick capacity (up to 256GB), you have the option.

Next is the socket for the included Q-DIMM.2 add-in card, which adds two PCIe 4.0 x4-capable M.2 sockets (up to 110mm). I’m a big fan of this solution for additional M.2 sockets, as its larger heatsinks can help manage thermals better than those sharing a plate-style heatsink with the chipset on the board itself

In the upper right corner are a couple of diagnostic tools in the Q-LEDs and Q-CODE LED. The former is the simpler 4-LED system (CPU, DRAM, BOOT, VGA), while the latter shares a bit more detail in the 2-character display. Hidden under a black shroud with labels on top are the start and Flexkey buttons. Below that, sticking out horizontally, is the first 3-pin ARGB header, followed by two 4-pin headers (W_PUMP1 and CHA_FAN2). Below that is the 24-pin ATX header, which supplies power to the board. Sitting vertically are the two front panel USB-C headers (20 and 10 Gbps, respectively).

Power heads from the 8-pin EPS connectors onto the Asus Digi+ EPU (ASP2205) controller. From there, it reaches the 20 vCore stages (and 2x SOC), utilizing 110A Vishay SiC850A SPS MOSFETs. The MISC gets different Infineon PMC41420 80A MOSFETs. The 2,200A is enough to handle the most extreme conditions. Power delivery won’t get in the way of any overclocking, no matter how hard you push the board.

At the bottom of the board, starting from the left and hidden under heatsinks and shrouds, is the audio solution. Here we spy the flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec, some dedicated audio capacitors, and an ESS ES9219 Quad DAC/Amp. It’s arguably the best integrated solution for this generation and chipset.

In the middle of the board are two full-length PCIe slots, each of which connects directly to the CPU. The top slot, using the updated PCIe SLot Q-Release function, supports speeds of up to PCIe 5.0 x16, while the bottom slot has a maximum speed of PCIe 5.0 x8. There is considerable lane sharing between the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets, though.

When M.2_2 is enabled and M.2_3 is disabled, PCIEX16_1 will run in x8 mode, and PCIEX16_2 will be disabled. When M.2_3 is enabled but M.2_2 is not in use, PCIEX16_1 will operate in x8 mode, and PCIEX16_2 will operate in x4 mode. If both M.2_2/3 are enabled, PCIEX16_1 will run at x8 mode and PCIEX16_2 will be disabled. In other words, if you plan on using the second and third PCIe 5.0 M. 2s, you will sacrifice PCIe slot bandwidth. We would have liked to see the M.2 Q-Release feature on this heatsink as well. As it stands, you have to use tools to access M.2_2/3 (and remove the GPU).

Speaking of M.2 sockets, we find three in the middle of the board: one above the top PCIe slot, under the large heatsink, and the others under the large plate heatsink. The topmost slot, M.2_1, connects directly to the CPU and is the only PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket that will not affect any other components. It supports devices up to 110mm in size (as does M.2_3). M.2_2 holds 80mm modules. Asus lists RAID 0/1/5/10 support with 9000 series processors.

At the right edge, again hidden under shrouds and connected horizontally, is an 8-pin supplemental board power, a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, four SATA ports, another 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector, and finally, two more 4-pin fan headers (rad fan).

Along the bottom edge is a range of connectivity and functionality, some of which you don’t usually see. From left to right are the front panel audio BCLK +/- buttons, LN2 Mode jumper, 2-pin thermistor header, and two 3-pin ARGB headers. Next to that are several switches helpful for extreme overclocking, including Pause, Slow Mode, a BIOS Switch, and a PCIe Mode switch. The latter two also have LEDs to display the current mode/BIOS. Next to that is a USB 2.0 header, the SlimSAS connector, the CMOS battery, and another USB 2.0 header. Then there’s the V-Latch switch, Retry and Safe Boot buttons, 4-pin water pump header, and finally, the front panel header.

The rear IO features a substantial amount of connectivity, including eight USB Type-A ports (all supporting 10 Gbps) and four USB Type-C ports (two 40 Gbps and two 10 Gbps), which should be enough for most users (especially those with Type-C devices). Among those are the Marvell 10 GbE and Intel 5 GbE ports. On the left are the Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons. The HDMI port or the USB4 ports handle video output (requires integrated graphics). On the right are the quick-connect Wi-Fi 7 antenna connections. Finally, the audio stack features a mic-in and line-out (3.5mm) ports, as well as an optical SPDIF output.

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Firmware

Asus’ BIOS on the X870E Extreme resembles any other ROG board, featuring the familiar black and red ROG theme that is easy to read. Asus starts in Easy Mode, which displays high-level information, including CPU and memory clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, and storage information. Advanced Mode has several headers across the top that drop down additional options. The new Q-Dashboard shows all the integrated connectivity. When hardware is connected, there’s a green circle next to it. The BIOS is one of my favorites, as any option you need is readily available, and anything you use frequently isn’t buried deep within menus.

Software

Armoury Crate here also follows the ROG-inspired theme. Several applications exist for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control and audio to system monitoring and overclocking. It's also worth mentioning the included software. When purchasing this Asus motherboard, you get a one-year AIDA64 license - a helpful application for stress and performance testing. Asus’ Driver Hub (get your updated drivers here!), Dolby Atmos (for audio) and a custom version of Hwinfo for real-time monitoring are also helpful applications. We’ve captured a few screenshots of the applications below.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. Thanks to Asus for providing the RTX 4080 TUF graphics card and Crucial for the 2TB T705 SSDs. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, and these settings can impact some testing.

The ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme performed well on average across our synthetic benchmarks. In fact, it ran slightly faster than average in some, including Cinebench and Blender. That said, most of these results are packed tightly together, so the difference isn’t noticeable unless you’re staring at charts like this.

Timed Applications

Timed applications were the same. Handbrake testing was slightly faster than average, while the Corona and LAME testing was on the slower side of results (literally a tenth-second and one-second difference). Nothing to worry about. This is a performant board out of the box with default settings.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of a more popular and visually appealing game. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Gaming results were also solid across UL 3DMark and our two games. Overall, this board performs well across a wide variety of functions.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all of the above, we’re not overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

The Crosshair X870E Extreme was one of the only boards to successfully run our stress test using our DDR5-8000 (Klevv) kit. It was right at the listed limits, and in fact, the kit (there’s only one DDR5-8000 kit on the list from G.Skill) wasn’t listed as supported, but here we are!

I consider the Extreme more of a luxury performance board, whereas the Apex focuses more on performance. However, if performance is what you want, you can achieve it on this board in various ways. Do you prefer manual overclocking? There are plenty of tools in the BIOS (including BCLK overclocking), Turbo V, Core Flex, and the Armory Crate on the software side to keep you busy, even with sub-ambient adventures. If you just want the PC to do most of the work, Asus’s Overclocking technologies, including the Dynamic OC Switcher and AI Overclocking, will get the most out of your processor with little effort from the user.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have transitioned to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

The power consumption of the Ryzen 9 9990X is relatively low compared to the 7950X used for the X670/X670E platform. In the past, high-end boards peaked at nearly 300W, but current systems now reach a maximum of 250- 270W during CPU stress tests (gaming with the Nvidia RTX 4080 versus the RTX 3070 is a different matter).

That said, the Extreme peaked at 274W under load (the highest we’ve recorded with this CPU/platform), with the CPU consuming around 160W (around 10W more than we typically see). The idle power consumption was also on the high side, settling at 94W. It’s not the mark of efficiency, but that’s to be expected from a board with everything the platform has to offer available.

VRM temperatures peaked at just over 51 degrees Celsius on our sensors. Interestingly, the internal sensor reading was lower, but only by one degree, at 50 degrees Celsius. Using the included fan, temperatures dropped by a couple of degrees in our test-bed configuration. The fan was audible during the stress test, though you do have some control over it through various means. But it easily handled our test CPU and would also handle the likes of the Ryzen 9 9950X.

Bottom Line

The Crosshair X870E Extreme, priced at just under $1000, stands out as a premium, feature-rich motherboard. It offers robust VRMs, 10 GbE, Wi-Fi 7, and five M.2 sockets (three of which are PCIe 5.0). High-end audio with an integrated DAC/Amp is also included, along with a customizable 5-inch full-color LCD. Beyond its impressive hardware, the motherboard delivered strong performance in testing and offers valuable features, including an AI suite and a comprehensive BIOS.

The ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme is a flagship-class E-ATX motherboard from Asus, priced at $999.99. It offers high-end hardware and a premium look, which helps justify its cost. While Gigabyte's Aorus Extreme AI TOP is a less expensive flagship option at $799.99, MSI's X870E Godlike, whose price has come down to $999.99 (down from its release price of $1,099.99). Despite the various pros and cons of these high-end motherboards, Asus' ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme, when priced below the Godlike as it was a week before publishing, stands out as a solid ‘value’ among current flagship AMD motherboards. At the same price, it’s still worth it, but the value proposition then falls squarely on the $800 Gigabyte.

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According to the benchmark listing, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus scored 22,206 points in multi-core and 3,205 points in single-core tests, making it almost 10% faster than the Core Ultra 7 265 K's typical scores on the same compute benchmark.

Additional details confirm that the CPU features 24 cores (8P + 16E), 24 threads, and a maximum boost clock of 5.5 GHz. The CPU was tested with 48GB of DDR5 memory at 7,182 MT/s and an RTX 5090D GPU in a Lenovo-branded system, meaning that the CPU could potentially be exclusive to system integrators. The faster memory support also suggests that this particular CPU could be a part of an Arrow Lake refresh, as the current lineup of chips supports up to DDR5 6,400 MT/s memory.

The Intel Core Ultra 200S series officially launched in October 2024, marking the debut of the Arrow Lake desktop lineup and Intel’s first chiplet-based architecture for consumer CPUs. The release came at a critical time for the company, following a difficult financial quarter and mounting competition from AMD. Unfortunately, Arrow Lake failed to deliver the kind of turnaround it was hoping for as early sales tapered off within weeks of launch, and the chips struggled to gain traction even months later as buyers continued to favor older Raptor Lake models.

If the leaked benchmarks hold any authenticity, Intel might be preparing more SKUs under the Arrow Lake branding to potentially address the shortcomings of its current lineup. Whether the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus becomes part of that effort remains to be seen, but the company clearly isn’t ready to move on from Arrow Lake just yet.

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The MAG A850GLS emerges as MSI's attempt to democratize premium power delivery aesthetics without the associated premium pricing—a balancing act that's proven historically challenging in the power supply market. Like a well-tailored suit from a department store, it looks the part from a distance but reveals its compromises upon closer inspection. How does it stack against the best power supplies in the market? This 850W unit represents MSI's move towards the newest ATX 3.1 standard while incorporating distinctive design elements that separate it from the sea of generic black boxes. With its dual 12V-2x6 connectors and geometric chassis styling, the A850GLS targets enthusiasts who demand both form and function but remain mindful of their budget constraints.

Specifications and Design

In the Box

The MSI MAG A850GLS arrives in packaging that transmits the company's design philosophy, a sturdy cardboard box adorned with brushed metal aesthetic themes. The robust construction and foam inserts provide adequate protection, though the presentation feels slightly overwrought for a mainstream product.

MSI keeps the bundle straightforward, including only essential mounting hardware and the requisite AC power cable. There are no cable ties or straps included as a bundle but the cables do have wire combs pre-installed.

The cable selection deserves particular praise, featuring all-black construction with individually sleeved wires that MSI terms "embossed jacket cables." The cables are particularly flexible. This premium treatment extends throughout the cable set, creating a uniform appearance, with pre-installed wire combs on the primary ATX, CPU, and PCIe connectors.

External Appearance

MSI has invested significant resources in the MAG A850GLS's visual presentation, clearly aiming for much more than mere utility. The unit measures a reasonable 150mm in depth which slightly exceeds ATX specifications but should remain compatible with virtually all modern cases except the most space-constrained designs.

The matte black chassis finish provides an excellent backdrop for the unit's geometric patterning, featuring complex embossed shapes and etched lines that create visual interest without appearing ostentatious. The custom fan finger guard deserves special mention, incorporating a distinctive hexagonal shape that adds technical flair while maintaining practical airflow characteristics.

The modular connector layout on the rear panel maintains clean organization, with MSI's full series logo etched discreetly above the connection points. At the front, we can only see the typical AC cable receptacle and on/off switch – there is no switch for disabling the unit’s hybrid mode. The hybrid fan mode operates automatically without user override capability.

Internal Design

Cooling responsibilities fall to a ZETA ZFF132512H 135mm fan equipped with fluid dynamic bearings. FDB fans are a technology that represents the sweet spot between cost and performance for mainstream applications. While lacking the extended lifespan characteristics of hydraulic and/or ball bearing systems, fluid dynamic bearings provide excellent noise characteristics and reasonable durability expectations for typical consumer use patterns. The choice of ZETA as fan supplier raises eyebrows, as this manufacturer maintains virtually no online presence and we practically never find their products in premium PC PSUs.

Channel Well Technology (CWT) serves as the OEM partner, bringing considerable expertise from their extensive work with premium brands over the past couple of decades. CWT's reputation is not unfounded, stemming from their seasoned engineering capabilities and proven track record for performance and reliability, with their platforms frequently appearing in mid-to-high tier PC PSUs from respected manufacturers.

The filtering stage implements a competent design featuring six Y capacitors, two X capacitors, and two filtering inductors. Right after the filtering stage, we find two rectifying bridges on a sizable heatsink. The APFC circuit employs two ST Microelectronics 33N60M2 MOSFETs and a diode placed on a simplistic heatsink near the edge of the board. The passive components consist of one encased inductor and a single Teapo 560μF capacitor.

The primary inversion stage utilizes a half-bridge LLC topology built around two ST Microelectronics 33N60M2 MOSFETs, a mature design choice that prioritizes efficiency over cutting-edge performance characteristics. These active components receive their own dedicated heatsink positioned immediately after the APFC stage, though their size appears somewhat basic for the unit's power output requirements.

At the secondary side of the transformer, we find six IPS 014N04SA MOSFETs positioned on the main PCB that handle primary 12V line generation, with small heatsinks providing indirect cooling. DC-to-DC conversion circuits handle the increasingly less critical 3.3V and 5V rails.

Component selection reveals the unit's mainstream positioning most clearly through capacitor choices. The secondary side features a mixed selection of Teapo and ChengX products - manufacturers with proven reliability records but lacking the prestige and extended lifespan expectations of Japanese alternatives like Nippon Chemi-Con or Rubycon. More concerning are several polymer capacitors bearing no manufacturer markings whatsoever and which we could not identify. This component anonymity is not a common compromise even in mainstream PSUs.

Cold Test Results

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts.

The MSI MAG A850GLS demonstrates impressive efficiency characteristics that significantly exceed its 80Plus Gold certification requirements. At 115 VAC input, the unit achieves an outstanding 90.5% average nominal load efficiency, while 230 VAC operation improves performance to an exceptional 92.4%. These results earned the unit Cybenetics Platinum recognition. Notably, MSI still chose to market this unit as "Gold" certified, obviously because MAG represents their mainstream-level series and the company did not want internal competition with their MPG series. The efficiency curve peaks at approximately 50% load with consistently excellent performance throughout the entire 10-100% nominal load range. The unit maintains good efficiency at very low loads.

Fan behavior proves exemplary during cold testing, with the fan remaining completely stopped until reaching 50% load, after which point it gradually increases speed with low acoustic output maintained across most of the power range. However, the fan control algorithm exhibits an explosive speed increase at maximum load, probably due to a characteristic that prioritizes reliability under such conditions. The thermal performance of the unit proves excellent considering the relatively simplistic heatsink designs throughout the internal architecture.

Hot Test Results

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Elevated temperature testing reveals both the strengths and limitations of the MAG A850GLS's thermal design under stressful operating conditions. High ambient temperatures have a reasonable effect on the electrical performance of the unit, with efficiency dropping to 89.7% at 115 VAC and 91.6% at 230 VAC - reductions of approximately 0.8% that represent just the expected performance degradation for a quality PSU with seemingly zero signs of thermal stress.

The fan control algorithm becomes significantly more aggressive under hot conditions, starting operation at 50% load but ramping speed much faster than during cold operation, reaching maximum RPM when the unit operates at 90% capacity. The unit becomes loud when heavily loaded.

Internal temperature management proves adequate under all tested conditions, with component temperatures rising predictably under sustained high-load operation. The internal temperatures exhibit a noticeable increase when operating at maximum load for prolonged periods, as the fan had already reached its maximum speed at 90% load. The relatively simple heatsink design reaches its thermal limits under extreme conditions, though all temperatures remain well within safe operational levels throughout testing.

PSU Quality and Bottom Line

Power Supply Quality

The MSI MAG A850GLS delivers good electrical performance and power output quality overall that meets modern system requirements without achieving standout excellence. Voltage ripple filtering could be better but proves adequate for a unit of this class, with maximum measurements of 58 mV on the 12V rail, 28 mV on the 5V rail, and 28 mV on the 3.3V rail. While these figures exceed the performance of premium competitors, they remain well within ATX specifications and pose no practical limitations for system operation. Voltage regulation demonstrates exceptional performance across all rails, achieving remarkable 0.8% regulation on the 12V rail, 0.7% on the 5V rail, and 0.8% on the 3.3V rail - performance that proves impressive even on the secondary rails that are often neglected in modern designs.

During our thorough assessment, we evaluate the essential protection features of every power supply unit we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP). All protection mechanisms were activated and functioned correctly during testing.

The protection features work well during comprehensive testing, though some calibration decisions are questionable. Over Current Protection appears too lax on the minor rails, even for an ATX 3.1 unit, triggering at 142% for the 3.3V rail and 144% for the 5V rail. However, OCP protection on the 12V rail proves perfect at 120%, while Over Power Protection demonstrates ideal calibration at 122% under hot conditions, showing appropriate engineering focus on the critical primary power delivery circuit.

Bottom Line

The MSI MAG A850GLS represents a thoughtful attempt to bring premium power supply aesthetics and features to mainstream pricing - a challenging proposition that yields mixed results. The partnership with Channel Well Technology has produced a mature, well-engineered platform that demonstrates solid electrical performance and reasonable build quality. The premium cable treatment and distinctive chassis styling provide genuine value for system builders who prioritize aesthetics. The comprehensive 7-year warranty demonstrates MSI's confidence in their engineering decisions and provides reasonable protection for the investment.

The unit's dual 12V-2x6 connector configuration represents forward-thinking design that anticipates future graphics card requirements, though the limited number of traditional 8-pin PCIe connectors may constrain compatibility with current high-end multi-GPU configurations. The excellent efficiency characteristics and solid voltage regulation create a foundation for reliable system operation across a wide range of loading conditions. The unit's ability to maintain tight voltage regulation, combined with adequate ripple suppression and well-calibrated protection circuits on the critical 12V rail, provide the electrical stability necessary for sensitive modern components including high-end CPUs and graphics cards.

However, the component selection reveals the compromises inherent in mainstream positioning. The mid-tier capacitor choices and anonymous polymer components raise questions about long-term reliability expectations, particularly when compared to units utilizing Japanese capacitors throughout. Thermal performance is good but better heatsinks would improve it dramatically and, in turn, acoustics under heavy loads would also improve significantly.

At the current $150 retail pricing, which is the unit’s MSRP price, the MAG A850GLS faces formidable competition that would be extremely difficult to overcome. Products rarely stay at MSRP prices for long however, thus we expect the retail price to drop significantly in the months to come. For builders who value distinctive aesthetics, the unit provides competent power delivery wrapped in an attractive package. While it may not achieve the engineering excellence of premium competitors, it delivers reliable power with style, which is a combination that may prove compelling for budget-conscious enthusiasts willing to accept reasonable compromises if there are modest price cuts.

MORE: Best Power Supplies

MORE: How We Test Power Supplies

MORE: All Power Supply Content

The new memory type will be incorporated into next-gen AI servers, says JEDEC. Although no official announcements have been made, Nvidia seems likely to take another shot at introducing SOCAMM2 alongside its Vera CPUs on its next-generation Rubin platform. Servers integrating the first SOCAMM memory modules were reportedly abandoned by Nvidia due to technical difficulties.

The multi-trillion-dollar AI giant reportedly couldn't get SOCAMM to operate within temperature limits, causing overheating on its Blackwell Ultra GB300 "Cordelia" platform. As such, Nvidia reconfigured "Cordelia" to traditional LPDDR memory for its release.

For reference, SOCAMM is a new memory design that is aimed squarely at the data center, particularly AI servers. SOCAMM is a more compact version of traditional DRAM DIMMs that purports to be more power-efficient.

For example, Micron's SOCAMM 128GB module allegedly consumes just a third of the power of an equivalent 128GB RDIMM. DRAM power consumption is very important in data center environments, where memory power consumption can often exceed that of the CPUs it's attached to.

The new form factor was inspired by CAMM2, and both SOCAMM and CAMM focus on improving memory capacity per unit area compared to traditional DIMMs. For example, the original SOCAMM modules from Micron measured just 14x90mm while featuring four 16-die LPDDR5 memory stacks.

Nvidia's original version was completely proprietary and was only compatible with its own hardware. It also only supported LPDDR5X transfer speeds of up to 8533 MT/s. SOCAMM2 supports even faster LPDDR5X and, in collaboration with JEDEC, should be available for hardware manufacturers other than Nvidia to adopt.

There's no official release date for SOCAMM2, but it is likely that the design will be finished in the next few months. This will give SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron time to build production SOCAMM2 modules and, critically, give Nvidia time to test the modules for its Rubin deployments beginning next year.

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Thanks to its incredible sequential and random I/O performance, this drive easily takes a spot on our list of the best SSDs. It was missing just one thing: an 8 TB version for those who need their storage dense. WD has now addressed this capacity gap in the form of the SN8100 8 TB variant.

This version of the drive is capable of pushing a positively massive 14,900 MB/s for sequential reads and 13,200 MB/s for sequential writes. Random I/O rings in at 2,200K IOPS for reads and 2,400K random write IOPS.

Really attentive readers might have noticed that these figures are marginally lower than the 4 TB version, but it's just by what's technically called a teeny weeny tiny bit. Take a gander at our tests of the 2TB model below and be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor.

The figure that grows the most, however, is the endurance rating. All that extra NAND means this drive now sits at a pretty 4,800 TBW of stamina, rivaling some server-grade SSDs for durability.

As we covered in our review, despite the massive capacity, power consumption still rings in at 7.3 W for writes, a number that's more than reasonable for the performance on tap and basically identical to the 2TB version's load power draw. Western Digital is plenty confident of the durability of this drive, backing it with a 5-year warranty.

You can get the Western Digital Black SN8100 8 TB now. It's available without a heatsink for $999.99 or with a heatsink at $1049.99 right from the Sandisk store. If you're looking for other options, hit our Best SSDs page for more recommendations.

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The leaks appeared early this morning; there are fully eight results in total. Someone was testing an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (GU405AA) laptop using the Geekbench Compute test on the integrated Xe3 GPU of an "Intel Core Ultra X7 358H". That model matches one of the leaked model names that was posted on ChipHell earlier this month and confirmed by CPUID, the developers of HWMonitor. The chip has sixteen CPU cores, which we understand to comprise four Cougar Cove P-cores, eight Darkmont E-cores, and four Darkmont LP-cores.

While the Geekbench result lists a maximum CPU frequency of 3751 MHz, digging into the result JSON tells a different story. Forty-five values populate the processor_frequency.frequencies array, ranging from 3519 MHz all the way up to 4767 MHz, and that's not a huge outlier; there are many results in the 4600-4700 MHz range. This might give us an idea of what kind of boost clocks we can expect from Panther Lake; 4.75 GHz is right in the same ballpark of what you can expect from AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 during a gaming workload.

As previously leaked by the well-known Golden Pig Upgrade, the "X" in the model name seems to indicate that this chip has the full 12-core GPU. Indeed, Geekbench reports that the tested GPU has 96 "Compute Units," because it's counting the individual Xe Vector Engines, or XVEs. There are eight XVEs to a Xe3-core; thus, twelve cores means 96 XVEs.

We knew that already, but what we didn't know were the kinds of clock rates we could expect from the integrated GPU. Geekbench reports a Maximum Frequency of 2.5 GHz, which is quite respectable even among integrated GPUs. This may not even be final silicon or drivers, though, because the GPU is reported as simply being an "Intel(R) Arc(TM) [0] GPU (16GB)".

The scores for the benchmark slowly went up as the tester re-ran it; the highest score achieved was 52946 points under OpenCL. Glancing over the Geekbench Browser, this result is in broadly the same range as AMD's Radeon 890M graphics, and in fact ahead of both the mobile GeForce RTX 3050 and Intel's own Arc A550M, which has sixteen Xe-cores and a relatively thirsty 75W-95W TDP. While the score might not sound too impressive, remember that we're looking at an integrated GPU with non-final software, running a benchmark that Intel typically lags in. So saying, it's actually a reasonably impressive result; these scores already beat Lunar Lake by nearly double.

Panther Lake's integrated graphics are based on the Xe3 architecture, but unlike Xe2, where every implementation of it used the same fundamental architecture, Xe3 takes a step back toward the original Xe philosophy, where the GPU core architecture is tweaked for the specific application. The upcoming "Celestial" discrete GPUs based on Xe3 will purportedly use the "Xe3p" variant of the architecture, about which nearly nothing is known just yet.

Despite being based on Xe3, though, the graphics in Panther Lake will be branded as Arc B-series products. That's because, as our own Jeff Kampman said, Xe3 is "more of a continuous improvement of the existing Battlemage architectural lineage than an all-new design." Intel says that Xe3 offers as much as a 7.4x improvement in certain microbenchmarks, but is only committed to an "over 50%" gain in actual performance versus the "Lunar Lake" Core Ultra 200V series. 50% is the gain in GPU size over Lunar Lake, so let's hope this Geekbench result is a hint at a much larger gain than that versus the last-gen chips.

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If the information from Chi11edog is to be believed, then the new lineup will be headed by the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2: a 16-core processor clocked at 4.30 GHz – 5.60 GHz and equipped with a whopping 192 MB of L3 cache (up from 128MB in case of the 9950X3D) as it will come with two 3D V-Cache chiplets (one chiplet per core chiplet die). The default thermal design power (TDP) of the CPU will reportedly increase to 200W from 170W on current models, but the processor's performance increase could be well worth it in applications that demand high memory bandwidth, such as games.

For gamers who do not want to invest a small fortune in a top-of-the-line CPU, AMD will purportedly offer the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. This eight-core CPU will run at 4.70 GHz – 5.60 GHz and feature 96 MB of L3 Cache using internal SRAM and an external 3D V-Cache chiplet. Since the CPU will differ from the existing Ryzen 7 9850X3D with a higher turbo clock, it will retain a default TDP of 120W.

Since the information comes from an unofficial source, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, it makes great sense for AMD to refresh its Ryzen 9000-series 'Granite Ridge' lineup based on the Zen 5 microarchitecture, both from a technology and marketing strategies point of view.

AMD's Zen 5 CCDs have been made for well over a year on a proven TSMC N4 fabrication technology; their yields are probably very good, so the company can safely boost clock speeds, raise power limits, and stack more cache without spending too much on redesign. Also, the new Ryzen 9000-series processors will keep using the AM5 platform, enabling drop-in upgrades for existing users, higher performance for those who are in the market for a new desktop, and new models for PC makers who tend to like selling something different from what they did a year before.

In short, the launch of Granit Ridge Refresh enables AMD to squeeze extra performance from the existing architecture without major investments or requiring partners to release new motherboards (still, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 will likely require higher-end platforms anyway). The refresh also acts as a preemptive strike against Intel's upcoming releases, keeping AMD visible in enthusiast and gaming segments that demand every extra bit of performance.

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The RTX Pro 5000 72GB represents an upgraded iteration of the standard RTX Pro 5000, distinguished primarily by increased memory capacity. The former boasts an additional 24GB of GDDR7 memory, a substantial 50% increase in capacity. This significant enhancement in the memory subsystem is expected to be accompanied by a proportionate increase in cost.

The sole modification to the RTX Pro 5000 72GB is an increase in capacity, as the memory modules remain 28 Gbps chips operating over a 384-bit memory interface, which yields a maximum memory bandwidth of 1.3 GB/s. The Blackwell AI graphics card comprises 24 memory modules arranged in a clamshell configuration, each with a capacity of 3GB. In terms of capacity, it is only 25% less than the flagship RTX Pro 6000.

Nvidia RTX Pro 5000 72GB Blackwell Specifications

The other specifications of the RTX Pro 5000 72GB remain unchanged. Utilizing the GB202 silicon—also employed in the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX Pro 6000—the die of the RTX Pro 5000 72GB features 110 SMs enabled out of the maximum 192 SMs. It corresponds to approximately 57% utilization of the GB202 silicon. Given its enhanced capacity, the RTX Pro 5000 72GB effectively positions itself between the RTX Pro 6000 and the RTX Pro 5000.

According to Nvidia's specification sheet, the 50% additional memory didn't alter the RTX Pro 5000's power draw. The RTX Pro 5000 72GB is still a 300W graphics card that pulls power from a 16-pin power connector. The modest power requirements, combined with its dual-slot, blower-style cooler, make it easy to have up to four of these Blackwell AI graphics cards in a modern system.

The RTX Pro 5000 72GB represents a strategic move by Nvidia, with the potential to yield significant dividends. As an intermediary model, the RTX Pro 5000 72GB offers a viable option for consumers seeking greater memory capacity than the RTX Pro 5000, yet wishing to avoid the exorbitant price of the RTX Pro 6000, which can reach up to $10,000.

Nvidia has not announced the release date or pricing details for the RTX Pro 5000 72GB on its website. The pricing of the standard RTX Pro 5000 varies significantly, ranging from $4,400 to $7,500, although availability is infrequent. The increased memory capacity of the RTX Pro 5000 72GB is likely to elevate its price by approximately 20% to 25%.

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Last year, we tested Hyte’s THICC Q60 – a “240mm” AIO liquid cooler which features an insane 84mm thickness (with fans installed), which raised the bar for what we consider excellence, providing the best noise-normalized results I tested, when paired with Intel’s i7-13700K.

Today we’ll be looking at Hyte’s latest X50 PC case, which features a unique look with its all-rounded design, top PSU placement, and a variety of colors to choose from: Purple, Pink, Green, Red, Black, or White. We tested the pink variant, but you can see the other color options in our X50 announcement coverage at Computex 2025.

Will Hyte’s X50 make our list of the best PC cases? Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the case, then we’ll wrap up our review with thermal benchmarks, so you can decide if this is the case for your next build.

Product Specifications

Features of Hyte’s X50 PC Case

▶️ Rounded design

Everything about the X50, from the sides, the glass cover, interior parts, including the PSU cage – even the bottom feet – is rounded. This, combined with the unique colors available, gives the case a softer vibe than the vast majority of case options.

▶️ Top PSU placement

The Hyte X50 is reminiscent of older computers, with its PSU placement on the top rear of the computer case. This means that the PSU’s intake is pulling warmed air from inside the case. That might be a problem if thermals are an issue, but we’ll get to that later.

▶️ Tool-less access

All of the case’s sides can be accessed and secured without the use of tools. Hyte uses rivets to attach the parts, which means they can be removed by simply sliding the part in question. In the photo below, the connecting slots are highlighted in blue.

▶️ Build quality

The build quality of Hyte’s X50 is insane, one of the sturdiest and most well-built products I’ve had the pleasure of testing. There are very few competitors that are built this strong.

The company touts its 4mm thick laminated acoustic glass for noise dampening, which includes a shatter-resistant bonding layer, 1mm thick steel construction, and automotive-grade tooling, which the company says requires 4x tighter tolerances than the industry standard.

The latter is likely at least partially a design necessity since so much of the case is curved, but it’s hard to overemphasize just how solid and premium this case looks and feels.

▶️ Rear view, Storage support, cable management

From the back, we can see the side intake support bracket on the left and the PSU cage at the top. Cable management velcro straps are positioned behind the PSU and along the middle of the unit, and there are five slots for passing cables between the front and rear of the case.

The storage bay sits at the bottom right of the case, and supports two 2.5-inch drives and one 3.5-inch drive.

The case’s design incorporates a rear mesh cover to improve airflow. The lower-priced X50 Air version of this case (which costs $20 less) uses this same type of mesh filter for both sides of the chassis.

▶️ Side view, back-connect support, GPU holder

Looking inside, the thing that stands out to me the most is the exhaust. which uses louvered ventilation blades. Hyte claims this design reduces exhaust impedance while reinforcing chassis rigidity.

▶️ IO panel, Top View

The IO panel is located at the top front of the case. It features a combined audio/mic jack, one USB-C port supporting up to 20 Gbps transfer speeds, and two USB-A ports supporting 5 Gbps. The power button features white LED lighting, and is somewhat unique in that it incorporates a tactile mechanical switch, like a mechanical keybaord.

▶️ Dust filters, Bottom View

The case incorporates an easily removable dust filter at the bottom, and has four rounded feet for support.

▶️Front view

The front of the case showcases a giant, rounded mesh cover.

▶️ Rear view

There’s not much to say about the rear of the case. The main feature that stands out is the gold-colored Hyte logo at the top left corner, and the louvered ventilation blades, which we mentioned earlier.

Thermal tests, test setup, and testing methodology

The measurements I’ve benchmarked this case against focus on the efficiency of the case’s thermal transfer.

Our thermal tests are presented to give you more information about the product’s performance, but aren’t intended as the sole judgment of the chassis. The style, price, features, and noise levels of a case should also be considered, and we all have different preferences. What I might like in a case, you might not, and that’s OK. My goal with these reviews is to give everyone, no matter their preferences, enough information to decide whether or not a product is right for them.

Knowing I was going to be reviewing a pink PC case, I reached out to TeamGroup, who was kind enough to send its T-Force Xtreeem DDR5 7200mhz RAM for use in this review – it is one of the only kits of RAM available in a pastel pink color, which matches the color of the X50 we’re using for today’s review. If you’re interested in this RAM, it can be purchased from Amazon for $215 USD.

There are also a limited number of pink CPU coolers that you can choose to match this case’s aesthetic. I would recommend ID-Cooling’s FX360 INF Pink which we previously reviewed, available for $99 USD on Amazon – or $85 for the 240mm version shown in the picture below. Just remember you’ll have to install an AIO in the front or front side, as the rounded top and PSU placement don’t leave room for cooling there.

With most cases I’ve tested that do not come with pre-installed fans, I’ve used a standardized set of Ocypus fans for testing. However, given the unique aesthetic of the X50, Hyte expects that most buyers will want to pair this case with a color-matching set of FA12 fans. As such, we’ve used these fans for our tests today. The colored variants (blue, pink, red, or green) of these fans cost $49.99 ($12.50/fan), but traditional black or white versions can be obtained for only $39.99 USD ($10/fan).

The pricing of these fans is reasonable, but it would be nice if the company included at least one color-matching fan for exhaust. Especially considering the case supports up to 10 fans.

Maximum thermal performance (fans noise-normalized to 38.9 dBA)

This set of tests is designed to appeal to those who love quietly running PCs, with the combined Hyte FA12 system fans and the CPU fan noise normalized to 38.9 dBA. Consider this a measure of the case’s thermal efficiency when noise levels are set to run quietly. This first set of benchmarks examines CPU performance.

Hyte did well with this CPU-only stress test, with the third-best results I’ve recorded thus far.

The second noise-normalized test I perform is much like the one above, but also fully stresses the RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU I have paired with the system – adding another 295W of heat to the case. The GPU temperatures in this test were the second-best I’ve seen amongst the cases I’ve tested this way, with an average temperature of 63.7 degrees Celsius.

CPU performance in this combined CPU+GPU stress test remained very good, also taking the second-place spot, dropping by only 5W, with 274W dissipated from the CPU cooler!

Maximum Noise Levels

I measured the noise levels of Hyte’s X50 case paired with four FA12 fans (3 intake, 1 exhaust) with my sound meter from 1 meter away, recording a measurement of 44.2 dBA. While this isn’t a low volume level per se, it is on the quieter end in comparison to competing PC cases.

Maximum thermal performance – FA12 fans at full speed

Our noise-normalized results are designed for folks who prefer silence, but what if you don’t mind additional noise and just care about maximum performance? This set of tests covers thermal performance with the Hyte FA12 fans running at full speed.

Starting with a CPU-only stress test, we measured 296W dissipated from the CPU cooler. While that’s a fifth-place result, it’s not far from our best result, which is only 3.2W better.

Adding the heat of a GPU brings the position of Hyte’s X50 closer to the front of the pack in terms of performance, achieving third place, with 288W cooled.

GPU temperatures were about middle of the road – averaging 64.1 degrees C during this test.

Conclusion

Hyte’s X50 sets itself apart with aesthetics – featuring a rounded design a number of striking colors: purple, pink (as tested), green, red, black, or white. The build quality of the X50 is in a class of its own, with higher-quality construction than the vast majority of competitors.

If you’re interested in Hyte’s X50 case, it can be purchased for $159.99 in the United states, or $129.99 for the X50 Air version, which swaps the front glass for a mesh filter. Just note that no fans are included. If you want to add color-matched air movers, Hyte will be happy to sell you a four-pack for $49.99, or $10 less if you opt for white or black fans.

For those looking for a less aggressive case design, or just something more colorful than most builds, the X50 is easy to recommend. It’s not the best performer out there, but our testing didn’t throw up any red flags when it comes to cooling. And if temps are a concern, adding more than the four fans we used for testing (the case supports 10) would no-doubt help on that front.

With a case this design-forward and colorful, some will also lament the lack of RGB here. For that, assuming your components don’t deliver enough lighting, Hyte also sells a selection of magnetic RGB strips, starting at $39.99.

Although the new memory kit retains what Crucial refers to as an origami-inspired heat spreader, the company has made subtle modifications to the design. Instead of a uniform solid white or black color, Crucial has introduced a camouflage pattern with a highly gamer-oriented aesthetic. The aluminum alloy heat spreader remains available in either black or white finishes, although Crucial employs fancier names such as "Stealth Matte Black" and "Snow Fox White," respectively.

Like other memory kits from the Pro Overclocking lineup, there is minimal marketing on the memory modules. The Micron logo remains visible; however, this time, the Crucial logo is presented as a product of CNC machining with a diamond-like finish to enhance light reflection. The Pro Overclocking memory modules have a height of 1.38 inches (35 mm), fitting into the low-profile category.

The memory kit consists of two 16GB memory modules. Each module features a single-rank design with eight integrated circuits (ICs), arranged on a single side. This represents the first occasion that we're seeing these Micron 5QH75 D8HKZ ICs, which, according to the SPD dump, appear to be Micron's new H-die ICs. Given that the memory module is 16GB, each IC has a capacity of 2GB. Meanwhile, the 12=BL 1G1 power management IC (PMIC) indicates to us that it's from Richtek.

As with any overclocked memory kit, the memory modules default to JEDEC's specifications. In this case, it's DDR5-5600 with timings at 46-45-45-90. Both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO support are present in Crucial's Pro Overclocking memory modules. The primary profile is configured for DDR5-6400 with timings specified as 32-40-40-103 at 1.35V. Conversely, the secondary profile is designated for DDR5-6000 with timings of 36-38-38-80 and a DRAM voltage of 1.35V. See our PC Memory 101 feature and How to Shop for RAM story for more timings and frequency considerations.

Comparison Hardware

The Intel system features the Core Ultra 9 285K processor and the MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard with firmware version 7E20v1A60. Conversely, the AMD system utilizes the Ryzen 9 9900X processor and the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard with firmware version 7E49v1A64. The Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD CPU liquid cooling solution efficiently sustains optimal temperature levels for both the Arrow Lake and Zen 5 processors.

The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Gaming X Trio addresses the more graphics-intensive workloads, ensuring that our gaming RAM benchmarks do not have a graphics bottleneck. TeamGroup's A440 Lite PCIe 4.0 SSD strikes a balance between performance and storage capacity, offering 2TB of high-speed storage that reaches speeds of up to 7,400 MB/s, ideal for Windows 11 24H2 installations, benchmarking software, and gaming.

Meanwhile, the Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 power supply provides a dependable and sufficient power source for our testing systems, directly supplying the GeForce RTX 4080 with a native 16-pin (12VHPWR) power cable. Ultimately, the Streacom BC1 open-air test bench is capable of housing all of our hardware.

Intel Performance

Crucial's latest memory kit demonstrated commendable speed on the Intel platform. It faced no significant issues securing a top position, only trailing behind the Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-6400 C38 in application performance. Conversely, the Pro Overclocking's gaming performance was comparatively modest and ranked at the lower end of the competitive spectrum.

AMD Performance

Memory kits do not consistently demonstrate identical performance across various platforms; therefore, testing is conducted on both Intel and AMD motherboards. The Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C32 memory kit did not perform notably well on the AMD platform and was generally slightly slower than the existing Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C38 memory kit.

Overclocking and Latency Tuning

Our best overclocking result on the Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C32 was DDR5-6600, maintaining identical memory timings while increasing the DRAM voltage from 1.35V to 1.45V. The result was marginally lower than the DDR5-6400 C38, which was anticipated, given that we were able to preserve the CAS Latency (CL) of 32 clock cycles as opposed to 38 clock cycles on the latter.

Lowest Stable Timings

The factory timings for the DDR5 6400 memory kit were already approaching the stability threshold. Efforts to reduce various memory timings were unsuccessful. Additionally, increasing the voltage to 1.45V, which is 7% above the default setting, did not allow us to lower any of the memory timings.

Bottom Line

The Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C32 exhibited a varied array of results. In comparison to the DDR5-6400 C38 variant, Crucial refined the CL timings from 38 to 32 clock cycles; however, this adjustment was accompanied by an increase in tRAS from 84 to 102 clock cycles. The trade-off balances out the performance, which explains why the C32 version is not necessarily consistently faster than the C38 version on every platform. With DDR5 memory, all timings are important, and you should not be fixated solely on the CL timing.

Crucial markets the Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C32 memory kit with two distinct pricing options based on the selected color trim. The Stealth Matte Black variant is priced at $174.99, whereas the Snow Fox White variant incurs a $12 premium, resulting in a retail price of $186.99. For comparison, the Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C38 memory kit currently sells for $129.98. Regardless of the choice, Crucial provides a limited lifetime warranty on all Pro Overlocking memory kits.

In a thread, CPU Duke explains that the chip under close scrutiny was kindly donated by a computer museum called the ENTER Technikwelt in Solothurn, Switzerland. The donation apparently came with a request that CPU Duke create some die shots of the early 1970s CPU.

Importance of the Intel 8008

The Intel 8008 was a milestone development as the chipmaker’s first 8-bit microprocessor. It was designed in 1971 by more or less the same team behind the i4004, with the new i8008 chip being released in April 1972. This sample was fabricated on the 10 micron PMOS process in Barbados. CPU Duke confirmed that this CPU was indeed manufactured in the Caribbean island nation, where Intel ran an assembly plant until 1986.

Creating the die shot image

The process behind creating a die shot of a chip like this begins with a little silicon torture. CPU Duke shows the exact moment they ‘decapped’ the CPU here (animated GIF alert) with a screwdriver blade. Ahead of that, they stretched out the CPU’s DIP IC pins to fit in a press, then heated the processor package to around 600 degrees Celsius. With the silicon exposed, it was time to get the imaging equipment ready.

The first imaging step was to take a few macrographs, for a good overview of what was revealed by decapping. Next, the CPU collector reveals that a more detailed survey of the i8008 was created using a “Wild/Leica stereomicroscope with phototube.” Later, the CPU enthusiast got much much closer to create the final image (embedded top), which required the painstaking alignment and stitching of 216 individual micrographs from CPU Duke’s equipment.

What the CPU die shot shows

Without getting too close, some details of the i8008 are already quite clear. Even with the naked eye, you can see the 18-pin bond pad connectors that interface the chip and socket. Also easily visible are markings showing ‘Intel 1971’, ‘8008’, and ‘HF’. That pair of initials is thought to pay tribute to the newest member of the i8008 design team, Hal Freeny. Freeny joined the i4004 team to design this 8-bit CPU.

CPU Duke comments that the 10 micron PMOS structure is actually so coarse that “light microscopy is still feasible.” Zooming closer, the CPU collector notes the visibility of the p-channel MOS structure under the metal surface. Specifically, semiconducting polysilicon is dark green, non-conducting bright green in some of the light microscopy shots shared.

The final stitched micrograph might have been more illuminating had it been color-coded with some kind of overlay. However, computer historian and reverse engineer Ken Shirriff has already shared an overview analysis of the 8008 die. Thus, you can cross-reference that coarser imagery to determine which areas of this fresh new die shot are devoted to the ALU, registers, stack counter, data bus, and so on.

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The AI startup showed off this new capability on X with instructions on how to install the drivers for AI developers. TinyCorp also shared an image of a MacBook Pro M3 Max running Tinygrad off of an (unnamed) RTX GPU hooked up to an ADT-UT3G dock using USB4.

For now, RTX 30, 40, and 50 series graphics cards are supported. The AI startup mentions that the RTX 20 series might work, but requires additional work on the user's end. The main issue is that TinyCorp's drivers only work with Nvidia GPUs featuring a GPU system processor, which is why no GTX-series graphics cards are supported. AMD GPUs based on RDNA 2, 3, and 4 reportedly work as well.

Getting Nvidia GPUs to run on Apple products has been pretty much impossible ever since Apple ditched Intel processors and switched to its homebrewed M-series processors running on the ARM architecture. Apple's M-series MacBooks are powered exclusively by one massive iGPU inside, so there has not been any requirement for Apple to implement Nvidia or AMD driver support in the ARM versions of MacOS.

This has forced developers and users to make their own drivers by hand for any chance to make MacOS work with Nvidia or AMD graphics cards running on external GPU docks. Luckily for TinyCorp, the AI startup already had experience building all the necessary drivers to run eGPUs on ARM-based MacBooks after it created the world's first external AMD graphics card driven on Apple silicon with USB3, a standard that doesn't even include PCI Express.

TinyCorp's X did not share many details about the development pitfalls the AI-startup inevitably had to plow through to get Nvidia GPUs working on ARM-based MacBooks through USB4 and Thunderbolt 4. But, it was likely easier for TinyCorp to implement Nvidia support with external GPU docks for M-series MacBooks, with their prior experience building the same setup for AMD GPUs on USB3.

USB4/Thunderbolt 4 is also tailor-made for devices such as external GPU docks, boasting native PCIe support, which probably simplifies support further. Not to mention the massive bandwidth improvements USB4/Thunderbolt 4 boasts over classic USB3.

For the AI crowd, this new capability of running Nvidia GPUs on ARM MacBooks will be highly beneficial for running local LLMs and other AI models on cards such as the RTX 5090 at a much faster rate than what Apple's M-series GPUs can achieve.

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While this doesn't necessarily confirm anything — after all, we're talking about data-mined information that's not even included in release notes — the timing makes sense. Previously, it was rumored that a potential Ryzen 9000G series was expected to launch in Q4 2025, which lines up with this new BIOS update adding support for Krackan Point.

The last desktop APU release for AMD was Ryzen 8000G, based on Zen 4, while Krackan Point is built using the Zen 5 architecture and employs RDNA 3.5 integrated graphics, offering a substantial performance leap.

That being said, Strix Point is still more powerful, since it's a larger die with more CPU and GPU cores, but that seems to be reserved for mobile for now — though, all hope is not lost.

Just as a refresher: Ryzen AI 7 300 and Ryzen AI 5 300 are Krackan Point, while Ryzen AI 9 300 is Strix Point, and Ryzen AI (9) Max 300 is Strix Halo, but that's an entirely different class of APU. Krackan Point has only three SKUs thus far: the Ryzen AI 7 350 and AI 5 340, both of which are intended for mid-range devices, alongside the Ryzen AI 5 330 aimed at lower-end laptops (that represents Krackan Point 2 silicon).

* rumored; not confirmed.

All of these could translate well to desktop on the AM5 platform, especially considering the power limits would be lifted to 65W (from 54W) to allow for higher sustained clock speeds. The point here is that AMD's mobile options have largely superseded Ryzen 8000G across the board, so an update was long overdue in this department, even if most people would much rather have Strix Point right now. Remember, the primary selling point of APUs (on desktop) is their value proposition, so it makes sense that Strix Point isn't making that jump right away

That's because manufacturers have reported it costing twice as much as Ryzen 8000G, which would make pricing undesirable for the end-user. Still, because the only thing separating Strix and Krackan are core configs and arbitrary naming conventions, there's a chance that both could be combined into a unified Ryzen 9000G series. Regardless, we're at the very least likely getting a potential Ryzen 5 9500G and Ryzen 7 9700G, and if it tops out there then the 9700G's iGPU might actually be a downgrade to the 8700G on paper — since it (Radeon 860M) only has 8 CUs vs 12 CUs on the older model, ignoring the graphics IP differences.

Time will, of course, tell, and we suspect we'll know a lot more about this after AMD's CEO, Lisa, gives the keynote at CES 2026 in January of next year.

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"I think we are up $40 billion since I made that big deal for myself," said President Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News. "They came in to see me, and I say, 'You know what? I think United States should own 10% of your company.' And they gave me 10%. It has been good to them too. Their stock has gone up so much that they end up making a fortune, but we make $30 or 40 billion dollars on that deal. And the same thing with that Mountain Pass. But in that case, it's because we want to get the rare earth refined."

When SoftBank and the U.S. government obtained their stakes in Intel in late August, the company’s stock was trading below book value, which means that the company’s assets were worth more than its market capitalization. While the company had been posting losses for several consecutive quarters and was still not out of the woods, its low market capitalization was generally a reflection of its damaged reputation.

The company has managed to capitalize on 5G, cloud, and HPC megatrends but largely failed to capitalize on the AI goldrush. Nonetheless, Intel still supplies more data center and telco-oriented CPUs than its rivals. The company has yet to become a significant player in the foundry market, and it does not look like Intel Foundry has many major clients beyond AWS, Microsoft, and U.S. defense work.

However, Intel has managed to develop five production nodes in four years and is about to start mass production on its 18A process technology and shift a substantial portion of its production from TSMC to its own fabs. Last but not least, Intel has been losing market share to AMD but remains the world’s biggest supplier of CPUs for both client and data center applications, which is a big deal.

Not a lot has changed since the US government's investment in August: the company is still losing money and market share, all while not gaining a firmer position in the foundry market, which proves the point that Intel’s diminishing valuation was caused by its reputation and business performance rather than its market position and prospects.

Since then, in addition to selling its stake to the U.S. government and SoftBank, Intel has inked a strategic deal with Nvidia under which it will supply data center-grade CPUs for Nvidia’s AI platforms, integrate Nvidia GPUs designed for Intel’s client system-in-packages, and receive a 5% stake from Nvidia. The deal is a huge financial win for the troubled CPU maker and also a significant vote of confidence in the company and its products, as it essentially proves that Nvidia acknowledges the prowess of Intel CPUs in particular and the x86 instruction set architecture in general.

Still, helping Intel survive its current turmoil makes a lot of sense for the U.S. government, as it is largely a matter of national security and industrial sovereignty. Intel is the only American company capable of manufacturing leading-edge logic chips, which are critical for AI, defense, and national security systems.

Backing Intel secures onshore chip production, reduces dependence on TSMC and Samsung in Asia, and advances the longer-term goal of rebuilding the domestic semiconductor supply chain. It also protects a strategic national asset from foreign influence and strengthens America’s position in the global race against China.

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What makes the Hyper 212 3DHP so important? It's in the name of the cooler – the company’s new 3DHP heatpipe technology. Traditional copper heatpipes are typically formed in a “U” shape, and work well enough in most scenarios. But Cooler Master’s 3DHP heatpipes are formed in a trident-like shape, with three ends instead of two.

Will this new cooler make our list of best CPU coolers on the market? Well, let’s put it this way: It features genuine innovation – a rarity in the rather stale air cooling market, and features a nearly silent fan. Let’s go through the features and benchmarks of this cooler, and you can decide for yourself if it is worth sinking $29.99 of your cooling budget into.

Cooler specifications

Packing and included contents

The cooler arrives in a simple brown box, with a purple label showing the design of the product and its specifications. Inside are two smaller boxes: One contains the heatsink and fan, while the other includes the mounting accessories.

Included with the product are the following:

• 1x 120mm fan
• Single tower heatsink with two 3DHP copper heatpipes
• CryoFuze thermal paste
• Mounting for AMD and Intel platforms
• Installation manual

Features of Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 3DHP

▶️ Innovative 3DHP copper heatpipes

This isn’t just another Hyper 212 rebrand – the Hyper 212 3DHP is the first cooler on the market with Cooler Master’s new heatpipe technology. Most traditional heatpipes are formed in a “U” shape, but the 3DHP heatpipes are trident-shaped. As you’ll see in our benchmarks, this groundbreaking and effective design allows for just two of these new heatpipes to outperform four traditional direct-touch copper heatpipes!

Part of the reason these heatpipes perform better is that they more effectively remove heat from the center of the CPU. As an example, Cooler Master has kindly provided this thermal image showing how the hotspot of the CPU is reduced with this new heatpipe design.

▶️ Single tower aluminum heatsink

The Hyper 212 is Cooler Master’s entry-level air-cooling line, and as such, it features a single-tower aluminum heatsink, shown in the photo above.

▶️ Copper CPU plate

The base of the CPU plate is pure copper.

▶️ Full RAM compatibility

As the picture above demonstrates, the Hyper 212 3DHP does not interfere with or overhang DIMM slots in any manner, ensuring compatibility with all sizes of RAM, no matter how tall.

▶️ Low noise 120mm fan

The fan included will appeal to enthusiasts who prefer a PC with the lowest volume levels possible, with our noise measurements reaching just 38.2 dBA. The version reviewed features ARGB support, but there is a solid black version of this cooler without ARGB, if you don’t want lights in your rig.

AM5 and 1851 installation

The installation of the cooler is fairly simple for AMD systems – but it’s somewhat of a pain on Intel systems because the backplate of the cooler must be held in place during the install process.

1. You’ll first need to apply the included backplate if you’re using an Intel CPU. AMD users will remove the default mounting mechanism.
2. Next, you’ll need to install the mounting bars onto the cooler.

3. Apply thermal paste to the CPU. If you’re unsure of the best way to do this, you can follow our thermal paste application guide.
4. Place the heatsink on top of the CPU, and secure it with the included screws.
5. Attach the fan with the included fan clips, and then connect the PWM/ARGB headers to your motherboard – installation is now complete!

Real-world testing configuration –AMD AM5 platform

My results may differ from others because I am looking for results that are comparable to real-world use. This means that I test CPU coolers inside a closed desktop case, which increases cooling difficulty compared to other testing methods.

Many will test CPU coolers outside of a case, on an open test bench. Open benches have lowered ambient temperatures, which in turn makes weak coolers appear stronger than they really are. Some publications have used generic thermal plates to test cooling solutions. I reject both of these methods because they don’t accurately reflect the real-world conditions where a CPU cooler is used.

CPU-only thermal results with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

Today’s review is going to be a little different than our recent ones, partly because our main testing 9950X3D system is encountering problems at the moment, but also because we wanted to have this review focus on the technological improvement that comes with the 3DHP heatpipes.

We’re using AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950Xm and tested the Cooler Master Hyper 212 3DHP (Single tower, 2x 3DHP heatpipes) against Montech’s NX400 (Single tower, 4x traditional heatpipes) and a prototype dual-tower heatsink with six heatpipes and two fans.

100W thermal results

We’ll start today’s review on the low end, focusing on a 100W workload.

For today’s tests, I’ve compared the Hyper 212 3DHP against Montech’s NX400 and a dual-tower air cooler. Montech’s NX400 is one of the best single-tower air coolers on the market, utilizing four copper heatpipes and a high-power E28 fan. Even with those advantages, the Hyper 212 3DHP outperforms the NX400 by 1.2 degrees Celsius!

It is also worth noting that the Hyper 212 3DHP ran virtually silently in this scenario, with noise levels lower than I could measure, whereas the NX400 was still audible.

200W

For this next test, we’re testing the CPU at its maximum stock power consumption – 200W, twice the thermal load of our previous test.

Here again we see the Hyper 212 3DHP slightly outperforming Montech’s NX400, by 0.8 degrees C.

150W, with fan normalized testing

After completing the first two tests, I started to wonder if the fan on the Hyper 212 3DHP might be holding back the potential of the 3DHP heatsink. After all, it runs very quietly – no more than 38.2 dBA.

To test this theory, I switched out the default fan included by Cooler Master with the newly released high-power E28 fan that comes with Montech’s NX400 – and boy, the results were interesting!

The Hyper 212 3DHP with its default fan continued to outperform the NX400 by a small amount, but when paired with a stronger fan it had significantly higher performance – trailing a dual-tower air cooler by only 0.6 degrees C!

The noise measurements here are intended to show you just how quietly the Hyper 212 3DHP runs with the default fan. In this scenario, it was only 37.3 dBA. In all lower power scenarios, the fan runs quieter than I can measure.

PBO Performance with fan normalized testing

Without power limits enforced, the hottest CPUs on the market – like the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X tested today - will hit their peak temperature (TJ Max) and thermally throttle with even the strongest of air coolers and even most liquid coolers on the market in intensive stress testing.

When the CPU reaches its peak temperature, I’ve measured the CPU package power to determine the maximum wattage cooled to best compare performance. It’s important to note that thermal performance can scale differently depending on the CPU it’s being tested with.

Like our previous test, the results are most interesting with Cooler Master’s 3DHP when it is paired with a high-power fan. In this configuration, it trails a prototype dual-tower cooler by only 13W! This is extremely impressive to see two heatpipes competing with a dual-tower air cooler that has six heatpipes!

If you prefer to use the stock fan, overall cooling performance will only be slightly better than Montech’s NX-400 – but its noise levels will be low, as detailed in the next section.

Maximum noise levels

In terms of noise levels, Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 3DHP is one of the quietest on the market – reaching only 38.2 dBA according to our measurements! This basically makes it the go-to cooler for those who want an entry-level heatsink with low noise levels.

Conclusion

Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 3DHP is an exciting addition to the air cooler market. Its two 3DHP heatpipes are genuinely innovative, improving cooling performance and efficiency. It’s also reasonably priced, at $29.99 in the U.S.

Don’t expect this cooler to surpass the best big air coolers, like those from Thermalright. But keep in mind that’s not what Cooler Master is trying to do here. The company will also release higher-end air coolers with its 3DHP tech, which we look forward to testing soon. If those larger coolers can scale up the 212 3DHP’s capabilities, while keeping costs and fan noise in check, Cooler Master may soon be making a run for a few spots on our Best CPU Coolers list. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a quiet cooler with impressive mainstream performance, the Hyper 212 3DHP is easy to recommend.

As per the Reddit post, u/RunRepulsive9867 found the unique GPU inside a PC they purchased from Facebook Marketplace for $500. After some tests, the owner of the card verified its specifications using GPU-Z, which confirmed that it was indeed an RTX 2080 Ti internally, but equipped with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, compared to the 11GB found on the retail version. It also featured a wider memory bus and higher bandwidth, along with increased ROPs (Render Output Units) and TMUs (Texture Mapping Units), though there was no mention of dedicated RT (Ray Tracing) cores.

Last month, we covered what appears to be the very same prototype when another Reddit user, u/Substantial-Mark-959, managed to get a faulty unit of the same card. The GPU was eventually fixed using a Founders Edition BIOS and modified drivers to function properly. Once operational, the card revealed the same specifications, including the 12GB of VRAM with a wider 384-bit memory bus that pushed total bandwidth to 672 GB/s. Unfortunately, the original Reddit post has been deleted.

Judging by its specifications, it’s possible that Nvidia initially experimented with a more powerful TU102 configuration before finalizing the retail RTX 2080 Ti design. Alternatively, the card may have been part of early testing for a potential Titan or workstation variant that never saw the light of day. Engineering samples and prototypes like these don’t usually make their way into the public as such units are mostly used for internal hardware validation, driver testing, and early performance benchmarking. Their existence is usually secured behind non-disclosure agreements or scrapped before official launch, which makes these working units valuable pieces of hardware for enthusiasts and collectors.

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The i386 shipped with 275,000 transistors and ran at up to 16 MHz at launch. Internally, it brought 32-bit general-purpose registers, a flat memory model, and support for up to 4GB of address space, but the bigger change was to the system architecture. Protected mode, virtual 8086 mode, and hardware paging laid the groundwork for real multitasking and virtual memory on x86. Microsoft’s early i386 development kits included demos showing multiple DOS sessions running in parallel, each in its own paged VM. That became a core feature of Windows 3.0 in 1990, under the name “386 Enhanced Mode.”

Compaq was the first company to ship a machine based on Intel’s new CPU, following a rejection by IBM. The Deskpro i386, launched in September 1986, beat IBM to market by nearly a year. This was by design; the company had worked directly with Intel on the chip and had early access to silicon. Prices started at $6,499, and the system became a turning point for the PC industry, whereby Intel made the chip, but Compaq dictated the pace.

Linux, too, was built on an i386. Linus Torvalds’ first kernel release targeted 386-AT hardware explicitly, and his early development notes reference nothing older. The 386’s protected mode and paging features made it possible to build a real Unix-like system without writing elaborate workarounds. Torvalds dropped 386 support from the Linux kernel in 2012, more than 20 years after it launched.

Intel followed the i386 with the i486 in 1989, but the architecture stuck around for decades in embedded systems. The company didn’t end production of the chip until 2007. IA-32 — the i386’s instruction set — remained the backbone of Windows and most Linux distributions well into the 2010s.

Ultimately, the i386 wasn’t just a faster 286. It made x86 viable as a protected, multitasking software platform, something it had never been before. 40 years later, its core design still shows up in emulators, VMs, and legacy boot environments. The original chip might now be long gone, but the architecture it defined isn’t going anywhere.

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SGT-4 (not among the best thermal greases that Tom's Hardware has tested) is based on PMDS; however, chemical testing and user evidence indicate that it is not a standard silicone-based thermal paste, as it adds a reactive acetoxy-curing RTV silicone, a substance that seems to release acetic acid when it contacts moisture, based on Igor's findings. This additive — likely methyltriacetoxysilane, according to Igor's Lab — was apparently used to make the grease cohesive and adhesive when applied at thin bond lines, but its reaction produces acidic vapors that cause metal oxidation and the smell of vinegar. 

During operation, the acetic acid gradually corrodes copper surfaces, causes pitting and discoloration, and glues surfaces together, according to both Igor and his readers. Although the substance glues the cooler to the CPU, Igor Lab's measurements found that thermal conductivity was far below the manufacturer's claims, probably due to pitting (called 'ant nest corrosion') caused by the acid. Normally, thermal greases are applied to fill in the imperfections of the surfaces of the cooler and the cooled system, thus enhancing cooling performance. This appears not to be the case with the SGT-4, as instead of filling the voids, it creates new ones.

Community posts on Quasarzone — a South Korean website — confirm a host of problems, such as erased CPU markings, copper discoloration, and pitting on copper. Despite the fact that Amech prefers to be an incognito 'brand' with no website, users from South Korea have found a way to contact it. 

The manufacturer's reaction was not exactly supportive: instead of addressing the evidence, Amech representatives issued personal insults, dismissed the findings as baseless, and insisted the product complied with RoHS and REACH environmental standards that prove that the grease does not contain any hazardous substances. Meanwhile, such certifications are irrelevant to metal reactivity or being precursors of hazardous substances, especially under normal usage conditions.

To make matters even worse, the Amech reps repeatedly referred to Igor's unveilings as 'a person from Germany' to discredit the source while avoiding any technical rebuttal. They have never disclosed the paste's composition either. As a result, by mid-October, trust in the company had collapsed completely among the community.

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Sure, I can install these every time I move to a new computer. Or I can work smarter and install them on a portable device and run the apps directly from it. That’s where PortableApps comes in. PortableApps is a website that collates portable versions of common open source/freeware applications that can be downloaded and run from your PC without installation. Best of all, there is a portable launcher that we can install on a USB flash drive and use that to manage software that is installed onto the flash drive.

In this how-to to we will go through the steps to set up your own portable apps flash drive, and show how it can be used between multiple devices.

All you will need for this how-to is a USB flash drive. Preferably USB 3 for the best possible performance. I chose a spare 8GB drive, but even an old 1GB drive would be useful if you only need a handful of apps or a collection of smaller applications.

Setting up the PortableApps USB flash drive

1. Insert a blank, formatted USB flash drive.
2. Open a browser window and visit the Portable Apps website, and click on Download from PortableApps.com. This will download a 7MB .paf file containing the PortableApps Platform application.

3. Double-click on the downloaded file to run the installer.
4. Using the dropdown menu, set your language and click OK.

5. Select Next to move on.

6. Click “I Agree” after reading the license agreement.

7. Select New Install and click Next. This will start the installation process on either your PC or a chosen USB storage device/cloud storage service.

8. Select Portable to install to a USB drive. You could also choose a cloud or local installation.

9. Select your USB flash drive and click Next.

10. Click Install to copy the files to the USB flash drive. If the destination is incorrect, click Back and choose the correct destination.

11. Ensure that Run PortableApps.com Platform is checked, and click Finish to close the installer and run the platform from the USB flash drive.

12. After closing the About pop-up and once the application updates itself, two icons will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. The first icon, a grey circle with a white arrow, is the PortableApps Menu (Start Menu). The second icon, a blue circle with a grey arrow, is an application installer. Click on the second icon to show a list of installable applications.

13. Scroll down the list and check the applications that you wish to install, and then click Install to start the process. I grabbed a few applications that I always need. Notepad++, GIMP, Inkscape, KiCAD, Krita, etc.

14. Wait for the downloads to complete.

15. Click Finish to end the installation process.

16. Click on the PortableApps Menu icon to launch the applications menu.

17. From the categories, select the application that you wish to run, and click on it to start.

The PortableApps Menu

The PortableApps menu is where we launch our portable applications, but it can do much more than that.

1. Installed Applications: All of your installed applications are listed here. They are broken down into categories for ease of use. You can also use the search bar at the top of the menu.
2. Quick Links to USB: Here are quick links to folders on your PortableApps USB flash drive. The Explore option will open a general File Explorer window to view the drive as a whole.
3. App Management: These links can back up and restore applications, check for app updates, and install new apps. The options link configures how the PortableApps menu integrates with your OS.
4. Eject and Close: These buttons are used to eject the PortableApps USB flash drive and to close the menu.
5. Disk Usage: Used to keep a close eye on available disk space on your PortableApps USB flash drive.

Are the applications truly portable?

I wanted to test this, so I fired up my Lenovo X390, running Windows 11.

I inserted the PortableApps USB flash drive and double-clicked on the Start file. The menu appeared, and I was soon able to launch Notepad++ directly from the USB flash drive.

This led me to the crazy question of “How portable are these apps? Could I make them work in Linux?” The short answer was yes, I could. I needed to install Wine in order to run the Start.exe file from the flash drive. It worked though!

But let's temper this success with a caveat. Some apps crashed! I tried the Krita image editor, and it loaded fine, and then crashed. GIMP was a little slow, but it worked.

PortableApps is a powerful tool for those of us who are nomadic and just want to get working as quickly as possible. It's free, easy to use, and very useful. All you need is a spare USB flash drive, something that all of us have in abundance. So there is no excuse not to test it out.

The System Power 11 550W positions itself as the entry point to Be Quiet!'s power supply lineup, targeting budget-conscious builders who still expect fundamental quality and quietness. We took a closer look to see if this budget-friendly PSU can compete against the best power supplies in its category. This unit adheres to the modern ATX 3.1 specification and delivers 80 Plus Bronze efficiency certification, promising respectable energy conversion while remaining accessible to mainstream builders. At its retail price of approximately $60 or 50€, the System Power 11 faces fierce competition from established players, making its value proposition dependent on execution quality and the inclusion of forward-looking features like native PCIe 5.1 support.

Specifications and Design

In the Box

The Be Quiet! System Power 11 is supplied in a cardboard box featuring the company's characteristic all-black theme, with the front panel dominated by an image of the power supply itself. Inside, a protective nylon pouch and foam inserts provide adequate protection during shipping.

The included accessories take an absolutely minimal approach, containing only the essential mounting screws and standard AC power cable. Be Quiet! has not included any cable management accessories, zip ties, documentation beyond basic specifications, or other supplementary items.

The power supply features completely hardwired cables throughout, a design decision that has become increasingly uncommon in the modern power supply landscape where modular connectivity has penetrated even budget segments. All cables employ an all-black color scheme with flat, ribbon-like wires and black connectors. Most cables lack any exterior sleeving, though the ATX and PCIe 5.1 connectors receive black nylon sleeving that forms a more traditional circular cable profile.

Of particular interest is the inclusion of a 12V-2x6 connector, demonstrating Be Quiet!'s commitment to forward compatibility despite the unit's budget orientation. However, this connector carries a significant caveat: its power output is limited to 300 watts rather than the 600-watt maximum that the PCIe 5.1 specification theoretically allows. This restriction means the connector will work adequately with potentially with more power-efficient future GPUs, but high-end graphics cards requiring substantial power delivery will be limited by its capabilities. The connector selection also includes only a single Molex connector, which may prove limiting for builders with older peripherals or specialized cooling equipment.

External Appearance

Be Quiet! kept things aesthetically simple and functional with the System Power 11. The chassis adheres precisely to the ATX standard's 140mm length specification, ensuring universal compatibility with any ATX-compliant case without clearance concerns. The unit receives a satin black chassis finish that provides an attractive appearance while remaining neutral enough to complement virtually any build theme. However, this particular coating proves somewhat prone to smudges and fingerprint marks, requiring a bit of care after handling. A decorative logo is subtly embossed on the right side of the unit.

The front panel employs the expected minimalist approach, featuring only the standard AC power receptacle and rocker-style power switch. The completely hardwired design results in a plain rear panel devoid of any modular connectors. The electrical specifications and certifications label covers the left side of the unit. The top surface remains completely flat and free of decorative elements.

The fan guard integrates a typical circular wire guard design, with a large company logo decorating its center and the series branding prominently printed beneath. This approach balances functional characteristics with simplistic, yet tasteful branding that avoids the excessive RGB lighting and aggressive styling.

Internal Design

A Yate Loon D12SM-12 120mm fan equipped with a sleeve bearing system is responsible for the active cooling of this unit. Yate Loon represents a well-established manufacturer in the cooling industry with a proven track record spanning decades, instilling confidence in the component selection despite the budget nature of the unit. However, sleeve bearings represent a cost-conscious choice that prioritizes quiet operation over ultimate longevity. While sleeve bearings operate more quietly than ball bearing alternatives under normal conditions, they prove more susceptible to wear under sustained high-temperature operation and may exhibit reduced lifespan in demanding thermal environments or systems with poor ventilation. The fan carries a maximum rotational speed of 1650 RPM, which proves perfectly adequate for a power supply with this output level and should provide sufficient airflow without becoming excessively loud.

The original equipment manufacturer behind the System Power 11 is Heroichi, also known as HEC or Compucase. This revelation carries significant weight, as HEC represents one of the oldest participants in the power supply manufacturing field, having been founded in 1979. Their longevity in this competitive industry speaks to fundamental competence and manufacturing capability. However, the platform used for the System Power 11 appears to be a subtle refinement of HEC's older Bronze-level design that has been in circulation for well over a decade. This aged architecture brings both advantages and disadvantages: proven reliability and known characteristics balanced against the absence of modern innovations that newer platforms incorporate.

The input filtering stage implements a very basic configuration utilizing just two Y capacitors, two X capacitors, and two filtering inductors. A single rectifying bridge handles AC-to-DC conversion, and interestingly, it lacks a dedicated heatsink of its own, relying instead on convective cooling alone.

The Active Power Factor Correction (APFC) circuitry and primary inversion stage share a common heatsink, a space-saving design approach that proves adequate given the modest power output. The active components of the APFC stage consist of two GPT13N50DG MOSFETs paired with a single diode, while the passive components include one small inductor and a Teapo 330 μF capacitor. The primary inversion stage employs two Infineon 60S180P7 MOSFETs configured in a half-bridge topology, a classic and well-understood arrangement that balances efficiency with simplicity.

The secondary side implementation reveals the fundamental upgrade HEC applied to their decades-old platform design: the inclusion of DC-to-DC conversion circuitry for the minor voltage rails. This represents the essential modernization that distinguishes this iteration from its now-ancient predecessors, where group regulation topology once handled all voltage rails. The DC-to-DC circuits allow the 3.3V and 5V rails to maintain independent regulation regardless of load distribution across different rails, providing more stable voltage delivery for modern computing loads that place increasingly asymmetric demands on different voltage rails. This upgrade demonstrates HEC's effort to keep their aging platform relevant for modern applications, even if the underlying architecture remains largely unchanged from designs that debuted over a decade ago.

Six secondary side MOSFETs handle the 12V rail's synchronous rectification duties, marked as PFR30L60CT. These mount on a sizable heatsink positioned immediately after the main transformer, providing adequate thermal management for the switching components. The secondary side capacitors are supplied entirely by Teapo, all rated for 105 degrees Celsius operation. The capacitor choice here represents a pragmatic decision: Teapo does not command the prestige of Japanese manufacturers like Nippon Chemi-Con or Rubycon, but they have established a proven reliability record in budget and mainstream applications over many years.

Cold Test Results

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts.

During cold testing, the Be Quiet! System Power 11 demonstrated respectable efficiency performance that comfortably meets its 80 Plus Bronze certification requirements. At 115 VAC input voltage, the unit achieved an average nominal load efficiency of 86.7% across the 10% to 100% load range, while 230 VAC input improved performance to 88.2%. These figures place the unit solidly within Bronze certification parameters, though they trail more efficient designs by several percentage points. The efficiency curve exhibits typical characteristics, peaking at approximately 50% load, where most power supplies achieve their optimal performance due to the inherent characteristics of switching PSU topologies. Low load efficiency proves reasonable for a unit in this market segment, suggesting that users running basic systems will benefit from acceptable power conversion characteristics even during idle or light usage scenarios. The unit does not carry any Cybenetics certification.

The fan behavior during cold testing proved exemplary, maintaining low rotational speeds across most of the load spectrum and becoming audible only when the unit approached heavily loaded conditions exceeding 80% capacity. The thermal performance under normal ambient temperatures proves more than adequate for typical desktop computer environments, with internal temperatures remaining well within reasonable limits during sustained operation.

Hot Test Results

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Elevated ambient temperatures reveal the System Power 11's thermal limitations and the age of its underlying platform design. Under hot testing conditions that simulate poor ventilation and/or very warm climate operation, average nominal load efficiency drops precipitously to 85.0% at 115 VAC and 86.5% at 230 VAC. This represents significant performance degradation that suggests thermal stress within the design, with efficiency losses of approximately 1.7% compared to cold testing conditions. This degradation proves more severe than observed in modern platforms utilizing more thermally robust components and advanced topologies.

The fan responds more aggressively under elevated ambient conditions, ramping up rotational speed earlier in the load curve and approaching maximum RPM during sustained high-load operation. However, the relatively modest 1650 RPM maximum speed means the unit never becomes excessively loud even under worst-case thermal conditions. The acoustic profile transitions from virtually silent at low loads to audible but not intrusive at high loads, maintaining Be Quiet!'s acoustic performance standards even when thermally stressed. Internal temperatures remain within safe operational margins.

PSU Quality and Bottom Line

Power Supply Quality

The Be Quiet! System Power 11 delivers commendable electrical performance that exceeds expectations for its budget market positioning and aged platform architecture. Voltage ripple filtering proves quite good for a unit in this price category, with maximum ripple levels of 48 mV on the 12V rail, 30mV on the 5V rail, and 30 mV on the 3.3V rail. These measurements fall comfortably within acceptable industry standards and well below the typical thresholds where ripple begins causing system instability or component stress.

Voltage regulation across all rails proves fair given the aged platform architecture, though it trails the tighter regulation possible by a modest margin. The primary 12V rail maintains 1.7% regulation across the load range, while the secondary 5V and 3.3V rails achieve 2.1% and 2.0% regulation respectively. These figures represent acceptable performance, delivering notably better regulation than the group-regulated designs of the past and are entirely adequate for modern computing applications.

During our thorough assessment, we evaluate the essential protection features of every power supply unit we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP). All protection mechanisms were activated and functioned correctly during testing.

The Over Current Protection triggers at appropriate thresholds: 135% for the 3.3V rail, 132% for the 5V rail, and 115% for the 12V rail. These settings prove well-calibrated, providing adequate headroom for transient loads while protecting against sustained overcurrent conditions that could damage components. The OPP activates at 116% under hot test conditions, which represents a reasonable threshold that allows brief power excursions while preventing sustained operation beyond the unit's design capabilities. All protection features function sharply without excessive delay or hunting behavior, suggesting proper tuning of the protection circuitry parameters.

Bottom Line

The Be Quiet! System Power 11 550W occupies a nuanced position in today's competitive power supply landscape, successfully delivering fundamental reliability and modern connectivity while making necessary compromises to achieve its accessible price point. The unit succeeds in its primary mission of providing stable, quiet power delivery with adequate efficiency certification. However, it cannot escape the inherent limitations of its decade-old platform architecture and budget-oriented component selection. HEC's platform engineering proves thoroughly competent if unremarkable, delivering electrical performance that meets industry standards while avoiding the concerning issues that have plagued some truly budget power supply designs. The company's decades of manufacturing experience become evident in the refined nature of this aged platform.

The electrical performance may not impress enthusiasts accustomed to premium units, but it proves entirely adequate for typical desktop computing applications. The assembly quality deserves particular praise, with excellent soldering work, proper component placement, and attention to manufacturing details that suggest HEC takes pride in their work despite the budget nature of this product. Thermal performance under elevated ambient conditions reveals the limitations of both the component selection and platform age, with efficiency degradation and increased noise levels indicating thermal stress within the design. More efficient platforms handle elevated temperatures with less performance degradation. However, the unit maintains stable operation throughout testing without exhibiting dangerous behaviors or protection failures, demonstrating that the design remains fundamentally sound even when pushed beyond its comfort zone. The inclusion of a 12V-2x6 connector demonstrates forward-thinking product planning and provides genuine value for builders planning to use modern graphics cards. However, the 300-watt power limitation is immediately restrictive. This represents a pragmatic compromise given the unit's overall power output and thermal capabilities. The connector will serve adequately for less powerful graphics cards or potentially more efficient future GPU generations, providing reasonable futureproofing for mainstream builds.

The five-year warranty provides adequate peace of mind for budget-conscious builders, though it falls short of the seven-year or even ten-year periods offered by premium alternatives. This warranty duration aligns appropriately with the unit's market positioning and expected use cases, suggesting Be Quiet! has confidence in the platform's reliability without making unrealistic promises about longevity. The current retail price of approximately $ 70 or € 60 represents a reasonable value for a unit with this feature set and performance profile, particularly given the inclusion of the 12V-2x6 connector that many competing Bronze-level units still lack. However, availability proves problematic in the United States market, where the unit faces stock shortages and inflated pricing when available. European buyers enjoy better availability and more favorable pricing, making the System Power 11 a more compelling proposition in those markets.

For budget-conscious builders assembling mainstream systems for office work, casual gaming with mid-range graphics cards, or general computing applications, the System Power 11 provides adequate service with the reassurance of Be Quiet!'s reputation behind it. The unit proves particularly well-suited for typical home and office computers that will not stress the aging platform with extreme loads or thermal conditions. However, enthusiasts planning high-performance builds, overclockers, or users intending to install power-hungry flagship graphics cards would benefit from considering alternatives that offer superior thermal performance, more modern platform architecture, and enhanced long-term reliability prospects. The System Power 11 delivers honest performance for its market segment without pretending to be something it is not, making it a reasonable choice for appropriate applications while acknowledging its clear limitations.

MORE: Best Power Supplies

MORE: How We Test Power Supplies

MORE: All Power Supply Content

The E28 controller signifies a substantial advancement over its predecessor, the E26 controller. Utilizing TSMC's 6nm process technology, the E28 delivers enhanced performance and superior power efficiency. Furthermore, the E28 serves as Phison's response to Silicon Motion's SM2508, which has been expanding its presence within the PCIe 5.0 market segment. With the introduction of the E28, Phison endeavors to reestablish its position as the leading manufacturer of PCIe 5.0 controllers.

The Z54E will be one of many consumer PCIe 5.0 M.2 2280 drives employing the Phison E28 controller. TeamGroup does not specify the particular type of flash memory used in the Z54E, only indicating that it is constructed with "high-density 3D TLC NAND flash." If an inference must be made, it is likely to utilize a 232-layer NAND, suggesting that TeamGroup may potentially be sourcing the flash from Micron or YMTC.

TeamGroup T-Force Z54E Specifications

The Z54E delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 14,900 MB/s and 14,000 MB/s, respectively, in its 4TB and 2TB configurations. The 1TB model, representing the lowest capacity SKU, operates with a sequential write speed approximately 300 MB/s lower. TeamGroup has not disclosed the random performance metrics for the Z54E. The drive is equipped with a DRAM cache; however, the capacity has not been specified by TeamGroup. Additionally, the company has not released the random performance figures for the Z54E.

Endurance performance on the Z54E is not too bad. The 1TB model is rated for 600 TBW, a figure that is subsequently doubled as capacity increases. The endurance levels are comparable to those of competing drives, such as the Sandisk WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro.

The Z54E will be equipped with TeamGroup's patented ultra-thin graphene heatsink to enhance heat dissipation. It appears that the company is not providing a version incorporating its T-Force Dark Flow active SSD cooler on this occasion. Considering that the E28 draws a maximum of approximately 7W, the Z54E is likely adequately cooled without the need for a chunky active cooling solution.

TeamGroup supports the Z54E with a limited five-year warranty. The company did not disclose the pricing or availability; however, we have contacted them for further information. We will provide updates to this report once the company responds.

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The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is the middle child in the Ryzen 9000 family, sandwiched between the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D. The 12-core part boasts a maximum boost clock of 5.5GHz, and 128MB of L3 cache in total spread across two compute dies. Just like AMD's other dual CCD X3D parts, the 9900X3D only has 3D V-Cache on one of its dies and uses software scheduling to ensure that all gaming tasks are loaded exclusively onto the V-Cache die to maximize performance.

The 9900X3D outperforms all of Intel's competing chips in gaming, since Intel still does not have a solution (yet) to fight AMD's 3D V-Cache technology. In our review, we found the 9900X3D doesn't provide the same level of class-leading gaming performance as its bigger and smaller family members (lagging behind the 9800X3D by 7% on average, but still putting up an impressive showing nonetheless), and outperforms all of AMD's previous generation Zen 4-based X3D chips by a similar margin.

Workstation performance is also solid. In SPECworkstation 4's benchmark suite, we saw the 9900X3D generally performing within the ballpark of AMD's previous-gen 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Intel's Core i9-14900K, and Core Ultra 9 285K.

The only problem we had with the Ryzen 9 9900X3D was its $600 MSRP, which was too high at the time for the performance it offers. This problem was exacerbated by its dual CCD design, which features two eight-core CCDs with two cores disabled per CCD. This effectively turns the 9900X3D into a theoretical Ryzen 5 9600X3D while gaming, hindering its gaming performance compared to the 9800X3D.

Amazon's 17% price drop for AMD's 12-core Zen 5 3D-VCache processor fixes this problem. At just $499, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a much more attractive offering and arguably one of the best CPU choices on the market right now if you are looking for a chip that boasts class-leading gaming performance and high levels of multi-core performance at the same time. The 9900X3D isn't for everyone, especially full-time gamers, but for power users and productivity users who need 12 cores, it's hard to beat for $499.

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According to the report, citing people familiar with the matter, Micron intends to cease shipments of its DRAM and other server-grade memory products to Chinese data centers, while continuing to supply the country’s automotive and smartphone sectors. The company would also continue to serve certain Chinese clients that operate data centers abroad, including Lenovo, the sources said. Micron declined to comment on the rumors but did acknowledge that the 2023 ban had impacted the division and that it “abides by applicable regulations where it does business.”

If true, the decision would highlight how little ground Micron has regained since Beijing’s 2023 ban on its products in “critical information infrastructure” — a policy the Cyberspace Administration of China justified on national security grounds. The ban effectively locked Micron out of many state-backed data center projects, forcing domestic and Korean suppliers to fill the void. At the time, the ruling was widely seen as a countermeasure against US export restrictions on advanced chips.

If the reports are true, Micron’s withdrawal from China’s data-center segment may allow Samsung and SK Hynix to further solidify their position in the Chinese server DRAM market, but recent US restrictions could make that difficult. Local players such as YMTC and CXMT have also expanded production under Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency, though their technologies still lag in performance and yield. China’s data center investment linked to artificial intelligence surged to roughly 24.7 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) last year, according to Reuters.

Mainland China accounted for around 12% of Micron’s revenue last fiscal year, and most of its recent growth has come from AI infrastructure demand elsewhere. Micron has recently broken revenue records due largely in part due to a rebound in memory pricing and booming demand for HBM used in AI accelerators.

US export controls have already restricted Nvidia, Intel, and AMD from selling their most advanced processors into China, prompting each to develop scaled-back local variants. Micron’s apparent withdrawal would remove one more Western supplier from China’s high-end compute ecosystem, leaving the field increasingly dominated by South Korean and domestic vendors.

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This is a relatively cheap display, and its maximum resolution is just 1080p, making it barely enough for the 27-inch screen size. However, you’re getting a surprising number of great features for the price you’re paying. First off is its 180Hz refresh rate, which should be good enough for most gamers. It also has a 1ms response time for sharper visuals and reduced blurring, especially during high-intensity matches. The screen also offers AMD FreeSync technology, and it’s VESA DisplayHDR 400-certified, making it a great screen for media consumption, too.

We haven‘t had the chance to review this particular unit yet, but we’ve previously covered the company’s curved 34-inch PG34WQ15R2B gaming monitor and the 1440p version of this display, both of which received four stars or more. This cheaper variant also seems to be well-received for its price, and even though it only covers 94% of DCI-P3, it should be good enough for most office work. For connectivity, you get a single DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 ports, plus a headphone out jack. Unfortunately, it only comes with a basic rectangle stand with tilt adjustment, but if you spend an extra $13, you can get the V-shape gaming stand that also gives you swivel. I personally wouldn’t get it, especially as I have monitor arms for my displays, but the extra investment might give you a bit more desk space (plus a better-looking monitor).

This isn’t the latest and greatest monitor that you can buy today. But at less than $100, you’re getting a capable gaming monitor that will let you enjoy your games on a budget. After all, buying an expensive monitor isn’t worth it if you don’t have the best graphics card that will allow you to maximize its capabilities.

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The M5 iPad Pro scores 4,138 points in the single-core test, outperformed by the M5 MacBook Pro, which scores 4,263 points. That's not too bad, but the real jump is observed in multi-core results, where the M5 MacBook Pro scores 17,862 points versus the iPad's 16,366 — constituting a 9% difference in performance. That's with the same 10-core base configuration on either device, but the MacBook does have active cooling and a much thicker chassis that can prevent thermal throttling and allow the chip to boost higher, sustaining that for longer periods of time.

It's easy to see why a fully-fledged "pro" laptop would outperform a thin (albeit overkill) tablet, even though they carry the same quality silicon under the hood. Apple never actually discloses clock speed numbers in its tech specs, but in the Geekbench listings, we see that the iPad Pro's M5 ran at 4.43 GHz, while the MacBook Pro's M5 topped out at 4.61 GHz. So, this doesn't necessarily equate to chip binning, but more so the enhanced cooling factor.

More importantly, though, these numbers are enough to beat the recently-launched Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, which scored around 4,080 points in the single-core Geekbench test, meaning the M5 in even the iPad is faster — and that's using official Qualcomm numbers. Moreover, compared to the M4, the new M5 is almost 10% ahead in single-core performance, and around 15% faster in multi-core performance versus the newest M4 MacBook Pro listing on Geekbench.

Compared to PC chips, the M5 is only behind a few single-core listings on Geekbench, if we count the best results, which makes sense considering how there's literally only one M5 MacBook Pro score right now, so it's quite cherry-picked. This also serves as your disclaimer for taking all these numbers with a grain of salt, since the sample size is simply too low at the moment to jump to any conclusions.

Intel's Core i9-14900KS scores 4,457 points in the single-core test, making it 4.6% faster. The current-gen Core Ultra 9 285K isn't far off at 4,306 points, rendering the M5 only about 1% slower. AMD's fastest chip on Geekbench is actually the midrange Ryzen 5 7600 with 4,226 points, but that test is deemed invalid; therefore, both the 9950X and the 9800X3D take the top spot, with 3,616 (and 3,615) points — which the M5 comfortably bests.

In multi-threaded performance, though, the M5 gets absolutely shredded across the board, and that's because it simply doesn't have enough cores to stack up to the AMD and Intel flagships. However, this could change with the higher spec'd 14-core M5 that hasn't been tested yet, and we'd assume the M5 Pro and M5 Max will certainly help level the playing field in this regard. The table above uses numbers from Geekbench's processor benchmark database to paint a more accurate picture, alongside the extreme differences we mentioned earlier.

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Danawa (via Harukaze5719), a renowned Korean price-tracking and comparison platform, shows that the cost of the Core i3-14100F has escalated by 15% from late September to mid-October. Concurrently, the prices of the Core i5-14600KF and Core i5-12400F have risen by 13% and 11%, respectively. Additionally, the cost of the Core i5-14400F has increased by 6%.

Similar price increases have occurred in the Japanese market. The news outlet GAZ:Log reported that the Core i3-14100 and Core i3-14100F are selling for 10% and 2.6% more, respectively. Meanwhile, popular Core i5 SKUs, such as the Core i5-14400 and Core i5-14400F, have increased by 20% and 11%, respectively. The higher-end SKUs, particularly those from the Core i7 and Core i9 lineups, have minor price fluctuations of around 5%.

Intel 12th, 13th, and 14th Generation Processor Price Hikes

Although the Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors have been available on the market for some time, there likely remains considerable demand for previous-generation processors. Subpar performance and elevated prices have somewhat deterred consumers from adopting Intel's Arrow Lake series. A significant aspect of Intel's Arrow Lake marketing strategy has heavily emphasized AI. Yet, it is evident that not all consumers find this aspect compelling enough to justify upgrading to Arrow Lake.

Increasing prices for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake may potentially enhance Intel's profit margins. The chipmaker is manufacturing these chips using the Intel 7 process node, which is now fully mature and likely operating at full capacity. Conversely, Arrow Lake relies on a variety of external process nodes supplied by TSMC, so there is limited wiggle room for pricing flexibility. Therefore, instead of lowering prices for Arrow Lake, it is more feasible for Intel to elevate prices for processors produced on its in-house nodes, which it directly controls. Arrow Lake prices have improved since the launch; however, we suspect that the sales are not exceptional.

Intel has not increased prices across its entire Alder Lake or Raptor Lake product lineup; instead, it has done so exclusively for strategic SKUs, particularly the most popular mid-range SKUs, such as the Core i5-14400 and Core i3-14100F. These categories of SKUs generate the highest sales volume for Intel, which likely explains why they are the ones experiencing the most significant price increases in international markets.

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In the images, you can see a SubC-branded Rayfin Mk2 Benthic Camera, recovered from the wreckage of the ill-fated submersible operated by OceanGate. This still and video camera is rated to withstand depths up to 6,000m (19,685 feet, 3,281 fathoms). The titanium and synthetic sapphire crystal constructed device features both onboard and expansion memory (the titular SD card).

Casing intact, lens shattered but remained in place

Inside the camera's tube-like form, it is observed that the PCBs had suffered some slight damage. For example, connectors between two boards were sheared off, and some surface mount components were similarly damaged.

In some images of the PCB that are shared, you will notice details are blurred at the request of the Canada-based underwater imaging specialist and Rayfin Mk2 Benthic Camera manufacturer. However, SubC’s requested trade secret obfuscation hasn’t stopped internet sleuths asserting that they know exactly what components have been redacted.

Picking through Manley's Tweet thread replies, the key PCBs in the camera were likely an Inforce 6601 System on Module (SoM) based on the Qualcomm SD820 processor, which comes with 4GB of RAM on board and 64GB of UFS storage. Another component is thought to be the Teensy 4.0 or 3.2, which acted as an MCU. Last but not least, the undamaged SD card is almost certainly a SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB ($62.99 at the time of writing), though it was de-branded in the photos.

Data recovery process and results

With an undamaged SD card, of course, investigators (and others) were interested in what details of the tragedy may have been captured and stored by this camera system. The first step was to make “an exact binary image of the SD card” so the original could be left untampered.

Check out Manley’s Tweet thread, containing investigator report screengrabs, to take in the full gamut of back and forth between the data forensics investigator, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), and SubC. To cut a long technical story short, though, the parties eventually met up at a lab/office in Newfoundland, where a recovered NVRAM chip and SD card image were interfaced with a “surrogate SoM board.” This did the trick, and 12 still and nine videos were recovered!

Recovered images were at a resolution of 4,056 x 3,040 pixels, implying a pretty common 12.3MP sensor was used by the SubC Rayfin Mk2 Benthic Camera. Videos were at a more standard 3,840 x 2,160 pixels – commonly referred to as 4K Ultra HD (UHD) video.

Somewhat disappointingly, the images and videos shared in the report were taken in the vicinity of the ROV shop at the Marine Institute, also in Newfoundland. The location was the logistical base for Titanic dive missions. No deep-sea shenanigans around the Titanic wreck were revealed. Manley explains in his Twitter thread that “the camera had been configured to dump data onto an external storage device, so nothing was found from the accident dive.” Nothing particularly pertinent to the tragic accident, that is.

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The RTX 5070 originally launched with an MSRP of $549, but early listings were priced well above that, often around $640 or higher. It wasn’t until last month that prices began to settle closer to MSRP, with a few models finally appearing at or below the official launch price

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The RTX 5070 is Nvidia’s mid-range graphics card aimed at delivering solid performance for most gamers, complete with support for the latest technologies like DLSS 4, Reflex 2, and improved ray tracing capabilities. The MSI RTX 5070 Shadow 2X OC features a fairly simple-looking dual-fan design with an all-black finish. It is also quite compact, making it suitable for small form factor builds. It packs 6,144 CUDA cores, 12GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, reaches boost clock speeds of up to 2,557 MHz, and a rated power draw of up to 250W.

In our review of the RTX 5070, we found that the GPU is capable of solid performance at 1440p, which offers an ideal balance between visual quality and smooth gameplay. While it can easily handle games at 1080p ultra settings and even 4K with the help of upscaling, 1440p remains its true sweet spot. Ray tracing is not its strongest suit though and most games at 4K require DLSS to maintain smooth frame rates around 60 FPS.

Looking at the gaming benchmarks, the GPU delivers a notable performance boost over its predecessor, offering 19% faster performance than the RTX 4070 at 1440p, with a wider gap of about 22% at 4K resolution. At its current price, the MSI RTX 5070 Shadow 2X OC should offer great value for gamers looking to upgrade or build a new gaming PC with an efficient 1440p GPU. Given that it’s the first time the RTX 5070 has dipped below $500, this deal is unlikely to last long, so you better hurry.

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We’ll be taking a close look at the primary upgrade in this digital model, the 6-inch, 1600x720 screen that’s rated to 500 nit of brightness. It can show performance metrics or even be configured as a secondary monitor.

We’ll also run the case through some difficult thermal benchmarks, using Intel’s i9-14900K and an Nvidia RTX 4000 series GPU to test its cooling effectiveness, both at noise-normalized settings and with the fans at maximum speeds.

Will Lian Li Lancool 207 Digital make our list of the best PC cases? You’d better believe it! The thermal performance of this case is among the best on the market, as you’ll see in the benchmarks section. Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the case, then we’ll wrap up our review with thermal results.

Product Specifications

Features of Lian Li’s Lancool 207 Digital PC case

▶️ GPU length and anti-sag support

While it is a fairly compact mid-sized case, Lian Li’s Lancool 207 supports the biggest RTX 5090 GPUs, with room for graphics cards up to 375mm (14.76 inches )in length. An essential GPU anti-sag bracket is included with the case, outlined below in red.

▶️ PSU up front makes room for cooling at the back

Most PC cases have the power supply installed in the rear of the case, but Lian Li’s Lancool 207 features a front placement for the PSU. This is a trend we’ve seen elsewhere, like in Montech’s HS01 Pro. But here it’s at the bottom, and turned 90 degrees. A bottom mesh cover assures the PSU won’t have an issue dumping its heat outside the chassis.

▶️ Dual fans up front and the bottom of the case, with strong airflow in the back

The case comes with two 140mm fans installed in the front (non-RGB on this model), and two 120mm fans installed on the bottom. Despite lacking – at least in the default configuration – a traditional exhaust fan, airflow through the back of the case (which is also mesh with large holes) is very strong! For those wanting the best cooling possible, an exhaust fan can be installed here. Up to three additional fans, or a 360mm AIO, can be installed at the top of the case.

▶️ Air cooler support

In addition to supporting the largest GPUs on the market, the Lancool 207 Digital also has room for larger air coolers, with towers up to 180mm tall (7.1 inches) supported.

▶️ Bottom view: rubber feet and dust filter

There are four rubber feet on the bottom to ensure airflow to the PSU (there’s also a dust filter here) and prevent it from moving.

▶️ Back side, cable management, and storage support

From the backside of the case, we see a simple but efficient setup. Cables can be managed and tucked in a tidy fashion secured by the three velcro straps on the left side of the case and through the top. Those who have extra cables from their PSUs can stash them above the SSD plates, highlighted in blue. Both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives are supported by the drive plates, shown below.

▶️ ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ATX support

While the Lancool 207 won’t support the largest EATX motherboards, it does support standard-sized ATX boards up to 244mm in width, as well as smaller boards. We’ve installed the Asus Z790-P Prime Wifi, paired with Intel’s i9-14900K CPU for this review’s testing.

▶️ IO panel

The IO panel is located at the front and top of the case. It offers a power button, audio jack, and three USB ports – two USB-A and one USB-C.

▶️ Accessories packaging

Lian Li goes the extra mile in the packaging of case accessories. Many manufacturers include the spare parts in simple plastic bags or a cardboard box. The Lancool 207 comes with a premium box that includes dividers that can be used to customize it as desired.

▶️ Toolless side panels

The side panels of this case can be removed and installed without tools, which some may appreciate for simplicity.

▶️ Six-inch, 500-nit 1720x600 display

The distinguishing feature of this case revision is the inclusion of a 500-nit, 1720x600 display. This can be customized through Lian Li’s L-Connect 3 software, which we’ve covered in-depth in previous reviews. It allows easy customization of the screen to show performance metrics, images, or videos of your choosing. There is a large variety of pre-packaged themes to choose from, I’ve shown a few in the pictures here.

But if you don’t want to use Lian Li’s software or just want to display something else, the screen can also function as a secondary display.

This allows the display to be used as you see fit – I’ve run Furmark at a whopping 450 FPS in the demo above. One thing I like using this feature for is to set up a slideshow of pictures in an album, changing every few minutes to display a different memory.

Most users will need to connect the display to a USB header on their motherboard. However, if you don’t have a spare USB header on your motherboard, Lian Li aslo includes an adapter so that the display can be connected through a traditional USB-A port!

▶️ Rear view

There’s not much to say about the rear of the case. Like most, it supports seven PCI-e expansion slots. The main difference you’ll notice from typical cases is the power plug on the bottom of the case, which connects to the power supply in the front of the unit.

Thermal tests, test setup, and testing methodology

The measurements I’ve benchmarked this case against focus on the efficiency of the case’s thermal transfer.

Our thermal tests are presented to give you more information about the product’s performance, but aren’t intended as the sole judgment of the chassis. The style, price, features, and noise levels of a case should also be considered, and we all have different preferences. What I might like in a case, you might not, and that’s OK. My goal with these reviews is to give everyone, no matter their preferences, enough information to decide whether or not a product is right for them.

Maximum thermal performance – pre-installed fans noise-normalized to 38.9 dBA

This set of tests is designed to appeal to those who love quiet PCs, with both system fans and the CPU fan noise-normalized to 38.9 dBA. Consider this a measure of the case’s thermal efficiency when the fans are set to run quietly.

The first noise-normalized test stresses only the CPU, running Cinebench R23 multi-core with power limits removed. I did a double-take when I saw the results here. The performance shown was better than any other result I’ve had since adopting this method of testing PC cases. This is a testament to the efficiency of the fans and airflow of this PC case.

The second noise-normalized test I perform is much like the above, but also fully stresses the RTX 4070 TI Super GPU I have paired with the system, adding another 295W of heat to the case. The GPU temperatures in this test were the third-best I’ve seen among the cases I’ve tested this way. The result of 64.2 degrees Celsius is only 0.7 degrees C warmer than our best result here!

As a result, the GPU’s fan speeds were also the third-quietest in this scenario, with an average measurement of 1,454 RPM.

Maximum Noise Levels

In terms of maximum volume, Lian Li’s Lancool 207 Digital spins up to 46 dBA with my sound meter from 1 meter away, which is more or less average for PC cases. One thing my charts don’t show, however, is the pitch noise, which isn’t particularly annoying here (at least to me). So I would say that the noise doesn’t “feel” as loud as the dBA measurements would indicate. But your ears may give you a different opinion.

Maximum thermal performance – pre-installed fans at full speed

Our noise-normalized results are designed for folks who prefer silence, but what if you don’t mind additional noise and just care about maximum performance?

Starting with a CPU-only stress test, we measured 296.3W. While not quite as impressive as our noise-normalized results, the Lancool 207 Digital performed well enough here.

Adding the heat of a GPU returns the Lian Li to the front of the pack in terms of performance, showing our best result recorded thus far with, 294.3W cooled (on average) during this test.

Now let’s look at the temperature of the GPU. With the system fans at full speed, the thermal result is our second-best, with an average of 62.5 degrees C.

The thermal efficiency of Lian Li’s fan configuration means that the GPU has to work less to maintain low temperatures, resulting in fan speeds running at an average of 1,307 RPM. Only Montech’s case did better here, and not by much.

Conclusion

Lian Li’s Lancool 207 Digital is an impressive case. Thermal performance is simply excellent, among the best avialable. And its chart-topping noise and thermal results and nice-looking screen, paired with a very reasonable price, makes it my new favorite compact midtower case.

If you’re on a tight budget, the basic version of this case is currently available for only $90 in the U.S. But the Digital version tested here includes a fancy six inch, 1,600x720-resolution display for $105, just $15 more!

256 cores per chiplet

The biggest news is that Tachyum's Prodigy processor will adopt a multi-chiplet design and each compute chiplet within that system-in-package (SiP) will feature 256 universal cores (up from 192 cores earlier this year, and from 128 cores initially). This suggests that the whole SiP will offer significantly more cores to fulfill the company's promise of '3X the performance of the highest-performing x86 processors, and 6X the performance of the highest-performing GPGPU for HPC.' There is a problem with this performance promise, however: the company still has not frozen specification of the CPU and, consequently, has not taped out the chip, so its actual performance remains to be seen. 

"With the capital raised from this latest funding round, we are able to get complete Prodigy tape-out with the latest innovations and designs to meet ever-changing market demands," said Dr. Radoslav Danilak, founder and CEO of Tachyum. 

Tachyum will use the proceeds from its Series C financing round to finance finalizing the tape-out process and schedule. Tachyum intends to disclose 'upgraded specifications and performance' of its processor shortly — it hasn't revealed when, exactly, but we can make an educated guess that it will happen sometime in 2027.

Commercial shipments will probably start in 2027

Once funding is received (expected within a month), Tachyum can finalize RTL and physical design — assuming it does not add anything to it, run final validation, and tape out the Prodigy chip. Because Prodigy is expected to be made with TSMC's 5nm-class process technology, Tachyum will get the first silicon in 4 – 4.5 months (depending on how complex the design is, and how lucky the company is after sending in the GDSII file to its production partner — as it will take 1 – 1.5 months to write photomasks and then around three months to build the first wafer / wafers). If Tachyum submits its GDSII file to its manufacturer on Nov. 1, 2025, it will get its silicon in Feb. or March 2026. 

After laying their hands on the silicon, Tachyum engineers will bring up and validate the design to ensure that it functions as intended, and then tune firmware. If the chip works as planned, the process will be complete in six to seven months — sometime in Aug. 2026 (at the earliest), or Oct. 2026 if we're being conservative. Once engineering samples meet target specifications, Tachyum can supply them to early customers and partners receive for their evaluation and validation, which might take another 2 - 3 months. If everyone is happy with these samples, Tachyum will likely initiate mass production of its Prodigy in early 2027. 

If everything is fine with production ramp of the Prodigy processor, commercial shipments could begin in mid-2027. This timing aligns with Tachyum's mention of a potential IPO in 2027 — likely planned to coincide with the initial revenue from Prodigy.

If Tachyum manages to release its Prodigy CPUs commercially in 2027, this will be the longest-developed processor in recent times — its development will have taken about 10 years. Prodigy was initially targeted for tape-out in 2019 and launch in 2020, but the schedule slipped repeatedly: first to 2021, then to 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and, now, the company is looking forward to get the first samples of its chip in 2026. But the company is still optimistic about its development despite these setbacks.

"We are seeing how the battle for AI supremacy is currently being waged and we are excited to bring to market a disruptive chip that will enable AI models with parameters many orders of magnitude larger than the synapses of the human brain at an affordable price at a fraction of cost of existing solutions," said Danilak.

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“M5 ushers in the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon. With the introduction of Neural Accelerators in the GPU, M5 delivers a huge boost to AI workloads,” Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji said. “Combined with a big increase in graphics performance, the world’s fastest CPU core, a faster Neural Engine, and even higher unified memory bandwidth, M5 brings far more performance and capabilities to MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro.”

Although it still uses 3nm technology from TSMC, the N3P process node used on the M5 (versus N3E on the M4) delivers improved capability through slightly higher transistor density. The company says that it has four times the peak GPU performance when it comes to AI processing over the M4, and that it offers up to 45% better graphics quality, plus third-generation ray tracing capability. There’s also a 30% bump in memory bandwidth, with the speed going from 120GB/sec to 153GB/sec in the M5, and, of course, a 15% improvement in multithreaded performance.

Apple’s press release mostly focuses on the chip’s better performance in artificial intelligence workloads, but we’re also hopeful that these numbers will translate to a better gaming experience on the Mac. Unfortunately, we don’t know how the chip will perform compared to its competitors from AMD and Nvidia in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, as we haven’t seen benchmarks yet. However, a leaked Geekbench result of an M5-powered iPad Pro showed the base M5 matching the M4 Max and beating every other competitor in the single-core test.

Those who want to be on the latest, cutting-edge Apple hardware can now pre-order the Apple M5 chip inside the MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro. The company expects these devices to ship on the 22nd, with in-store availability arriving on the same day.

Those who are already on Apple M3 or newer should wait for third-party benchmarks to appear, just so they know if the M5 is worth upgrading to or if they should wait a couple more years. We also don’t have the Pro and Max versions of the M5 (or the M4 Ultra) just yet, but the company typically waits a few months before releasing them to the public.

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Three days ago, a user on Reddit posted an image showing unattended pallets of RTX 5090 GPUs lying in a street in China. This prompted online chatter pertaining to a lack of enforcement for export controls, as the RTX 5090 is one of many high-end cards that are banned from export to China. Aware of the PR connotations of getting caught, or even accused, of dealing the GPUs in the region, MSI was quick to issue a rebuttal.

an insane number of RTX 5090s spotted in China from r/pcmasterrace

In a new statement posted on its site, the company has clarified that it had nothing to do with the RTX 5090 shipments spotted in China, and claims the global serial number tracking has confirmed they are parallel imports — when a genuine product is imported through questionable means, without the explicit permission of the parent company.

Dealers skirting export controls on high-demand GPUs remains a headache for Washington. Just recently, a Singaporean company was accused of helping smuggle $2 billion worth of Nvidia GPUs into the country. We've known for a while now that underground markets exist in the region, where cards are regularly modded with increased VRAM to make them better for AI applications.

All of this leads to a precedent where, even though Beijing shouldn't be the recipient of high-end AI cards on paper, reality begs to differ. Nvidia has made region-specific RTX 5090D and 5090D V2 models for China, but they carry neutered specs, which leads to shady, black-market shipments thriving. Nvidia has always held the position that China is an important market for the chipmaker, but that it, too, has nothing to do with how the region keeps getting its hands on banned GPUs.

MSI reiterated that it only sells its RTX 5090 in the U.S., Europe, and some Asia-Pacific markets, and that any unauthorized units obtained via grey channels are not covered under warranty. These illicit GPUs allegedly arrived in China through third-party resellers and retailers in overseas markets who bypassed regulations and illegally imported the cards.

While there was no word on any active investigations or whether the hardware manufacturer plans to take action, MSI did note that any products bought through non-official channels may have been resold or tampered with, and aren't eligible for warranty, repair services, or technical support. MSI is a Taiwanese company, a country that remains imperative in the ongoing U.S.–China trade war, and is an extremely sensitive region geopolitically. A significant portion of MSI's production facilities is located in Mainland China.

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Modern AI GPUs like Nvidia's Blackwell AI system-on-chips (SoCs) consume an extreme amount of power and therefore require liquid cooling. Modern copper coldplates feature relatively long 2D microchannels with small cross sections that are CNC-machined or skived from high-purity copper blocks. Because these microchannels are long, liquid must travel farther and rub against more surface area, which increases hydraulic resistance and reduces pressure, which affects performance. Frore says that its LiquidJet coldplates with 3D short-loop jet channel microstructures reduce hydraulic resistance and therefore maintain higher pressure inside to boost performance.

Frore says that it has adapted 'semiconductor manufacturing to metal wafers' (which probably includes metal wafer etching and bonding) and can fabricate 3D short-loop jet channel microstructures that are adjusted to hot spot maps of particular processors, greatly improving performance and efficiency, but at a higher cost compared to traditional production methods. Furthermore, since we are talking about semiconductor fab-style production, LiquidJet may have micron-sized features if needed by a particular application.

The results are pretty staggering, according to Frore. LiquidJet sustains a hotspot density of 600 W/cm^2 at 40°C inlet temperature, twice that of standard coldplates. LiquidJet's heat removal per flow rate rises by 50%, while pressure loss falls by four times, from roughly 0.94 psi to 0.24 psi. As a result, LiquidJet enables lower temperatures and more predictable performance of Nvidia's Blackwell Ultra processor under full load, according to Frore. The unit is drop-in compatible with existing designs.

Meanwhile, LiquidJet's design is scalable and adaptable for Nvidia's upcoming processors, such as Rubin (1,800 W), Rubin Ultra (3,600 W), and Feynman (4,400 W). It can also be adjusted for any other processor, as Frore's production method is particularly flexible in terms of adaptability to a particular hot spot map. In addition to cooling down hotter next-generation GPUs, Frore's LiquidJet will also enable other benefits. For example, better cooling enables steadier frequencies, which means more AI tokens per second at the same power budget. Also, lower pressure requirements reduce pump energy, improving power usage efficiency (PUE) and overall total cost of ownership (TCO).

"LiquidJet's unique 3D architecture, with customized short-loop jet channel microstructures, sets a new bar for coldplate thermal performance," said Seshu Madhavapeddy, CEO and Founder of Frore Systems. "Just as AirJet redefined active cooling for consumer and edge devices, LiquidJet transforms coldplates into a future-ready platform for the AI Factory."

Power consumption and heat dissipation of AI accelerators are expected to increase 10-fold in less than a decade, according to estimates by KAIST, a leading Korean research institute. As a result, these upcoming AI accelerators — consisting of multiple compute chiplets and featuring tens of HBM memory stacks — will require brand-new cooling methods that involve embedded cooling structures both for compute and memory chiplets. This is perhaps when highly optimized coldplates like LiquidJet will become a part of processor packaging rather than a compatible accessory. But this is a completely different story.

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Spray cooling functions just as it sounds; nozzles are placed above a CPU or GPU that sprays mist right on top of the chip itself. Depending on the coolant used, the mist will evaporate after hitting the chip (while the chip is active and running warm/hot) and returns to the cooling loop, where the vapor cools off, turns back into a liquid, and cycles back toward the CPU. If this sounds familiar, vapor chamber coolers use the same phase change principle.

To demonstrate what a CPU looks like that is tailor-made for spray cooling, Der8auer showcased a Cray X1 supercomputer processor from 2003, designed from the ground up for spray cooling. Compared to a regular CPU that has an IHS, the Cray X1 is pre-packaged in a stainless-steel clamshell that features some of the components needed for spray cooling baked into the clamshell.

On the inside of the clamshell are a plethora of tiny nozzles that aim at the chip's eight dies. Der8auer notes that the direction of each nozzle and the pressure at which the fluid is flowing are all critical elements to ensuring each die is fully covered in liquid. If even a small portion of one of the dies is not covered in liquid, it could lead to overheating in that particular spot.

Furthermore, Der8auer states that the coolant itself is critical to ensuring that any chip cooled by spray cooling stays at the right temperature. Primarily, the coolant needs to be non-conductive, with a low boiling point, so that the fluid can phase change at the right temperature. If the boiling point is too high, the fluid won't change into a vapour, trapping heat inside the chip.

To test spray cooling, Der8auer jerry-rigged a cooling setup comprised of a Ryzen 7 9800X3D with a custom-loop cooling system modified to support a vaporizer. The system is comprised of two separate loops, one supplies coolant to the vaporrizer, and the other pushes high-pressure air, which mixes with the coolant to form the mist.

Despite not covering the whole IHS, the jerry-rigged spray cooling system was able to successfully cool the 9800X3D. It wasn't able to cool it as well as a traditional CPU cooler, but it was enough for Der8auer to run through a single Cinebench R23 test without overheating. Achieving 18,164 points at around 95C. (To contrast, the 9800X3D normally hits around 23,000 points in R23 with a proper cooler.)

Der8auer's test might seem underwhelming, but its worth pointing out again that the vaporizer was only cooling a small portion of the IHS. If the IHS were fully enveloped, with a properly tuned vapor cooling setup, it's possible that the results could have been different.

Vapor cooling is one of the most potent cooling solutions for semiconductor chips. Its cooling potential is directly connected to the flow rate of the coolant, making it exceptionally effective at cooling CPUs.

Despite its capabilities, spray cooling is not widely used and is almost exclusive to the supercomputing space. But even then, only a handful of supercomputers ever used spray cooling (including the Cray-2).

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The chip in question is OpenAI’s in-house AI accelerator, part of plans announced on October 13 to deploy custom AI accelerators and rack systems in collaboration with Broadcom. The SoC, specialized for inference workloads, is expected to enter production in late 2026 and scale up to support roughly 10 gigawatts of compute capacity between 2026 and 2029. The Broadcom accelerator, said to be fabricated by TSMC, has been in development for roughly 18 months.

According to The Information, Arm’s new role goes well beyond supplying architectural blueprints. The company has recently started designing and manufacturing its own CPUs rather than just licensing cores to partners, and sees the OpenAI contract as a chance to expand its server ambitions. People familiar with the discussions told the outlet that OpenAI could use the Arm-designed CPU not only with its Broadcom chip, but also with systems from Nvidia and AMD.

The potential revenue from OpenAI’s CPU program could reach into the billions, the report also said, representing a major windfall for SoftBank, which owns nearly 90% of Arm and has borrowed heavily against its stake. SoftBank has also pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars into OpenAI’s data center build-out and to buy AI technology from the startup to help accelerate Arm’s own chip development cycle.

Together with earlier agreements with Nvidia and AMD, OpenAI says its chip programs now total as much as 26GW of planned data center capacity. If successful, OpenAI’s custom chip deployments could reach a total installed base that analysts estimate could cost more than $1 trillion in construction and equipment in tandem with its Nvidia and AMD purchases.

The OpenAI–Broadcom chip could also give the ChatGPT developer more leverage in pricing talks with Nvidia, whose H100 and forthcoming Blackwell GPUs still dominate the AI training market. If Broadcom and TSMC can scale production, OpenAI’s inference chips may offer a partial hedge against the tight GPU supply that has constrained AI labs for much of the past year.

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Intel's inference-optimized Data Center GPU codenamed Crescent Island will carry a GPU (perhaps two) based on the Xe3P architecture, which is a performance-enhanced version of the Xe3 architecture used in the Core Ultra 300-series 'Panther Lake' processors for laptops and compact desktops. The GPU is said to support a 'broad range of data types' relevant for inference workloads and cloud providers. Unfortunately, there is no word regarding the estimated performance for the part. However, there are still some hints in Intel's press release. 

The board will carry 160 GB of LPDDR5X memory (a lot more than one typically expects from a graphics card), which suggests the usage of many LPDDR5X devices. An LPDDR5X DRAM IC features two 16-bit channels, so its total interface width is 32 bits. The highest-capacity LPDDR5X die is 32 GB (8 Gb), so 20 of such chips are needed to equip a graphics card with 160 GB of LPDDR5X memory. This means that the card either carries one massive GPU with an unprecedented 640-bit wide memory interface connecting all 20 memory devices, or two smaller GPUs, each with a 320-bit memory interface and equipped with 10 memory devices. In both cases, it means that Intel will have two high-end graphics processors for inference, and the only question is whether these can also process graphics. 

Keep in mind that since LPDDR5X DRAMs feature two fully independent 16-bit channels, they cannot support butterfly mode (like GDDR6 or GDDR7), so it is impossible to connect 20 ICs using a single 320-bit interface to one GPU. 

Intel says that its inference-optimized Data Center GPU codenamed Crescent Island will be 'power and cost optimized for air-cooled enterprise servers,' so we would not expect the company to build a near-reticle-sized GPU for these cards. 

Intel plans to start sampling its Crescent Island products sometime in the second half of 2026. The company already has samples, and we might hear more details about their performance at the OCP conference or the SC25 trade show.

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• Check out this deal on Amazon

The newer Ryzen 7 9800X3D has already replaced this processor as the top dog in our list of the best gaming CPUs. But even though it’s already two years old at this time, having been launched in 2023, it’s still a great chip for those who want to build a decently powerful battle station. And if you plan to upgrade to the 9000 family in the future, you don’t have to worry about getting a new gaming motherboard, as these both use AMD’s AM5 socket.

Our in-depth testing of the 7800X3D showed that it’s already a great CPU for its price. Tom’s Hardware’s benchmarks reveal that it can perform better than some of its pricier competitors from both Intel and AMD, including the newer Intel Core i9-14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K. It comes with eight cores and 16 threads, and it can hit a maximum clock speed of 5.0 GHz. But its most important feature is the 96MB of L3 cache, allowing it to deliver higher frame rates and smoother gameplay. You can see this in our test results, with the 7800X3D consistently hitting an average of 195 FPS across different titles at 1080p Ultra settings, with 1% lows hitting 134 FPS.

If you’re building a new gaming PC with a mid-range budget or upgrading your current rig, now’s your chance to get a top-of-the-line gaming processor at the price of a mid-ranger. With this, you can either get a better CPU than what you’re aiming for, or you can use the savings to further level up your system by getting one of the best RAM kits for gaming, or maybe allow you to add a little bit more and finally trigger that purchase of the best gaming monitor you’ve been eyeing.

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Panther Lake-H (Core Ultra X 300H)

-Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
-Intel Core Ultra X7 368H
-Intel Core Ultra X7 358H
-Intel Core Ultra X5 338H

Panther Lake-H (Core Ultra 300H)

-Intel Core Ultra 9 375H
-Intel Core Ultra 7 355H
-Intel Core Ultra 7 345H
-Intel Core Ultra 5 325H

Panther Lake-U (Core Ultra 300U)

-Intel Core Ultra 7 360U
-Intel Core Ultra 5 350U
-Intel Core Ultra 5 340U
-Intel Core Ultra 3 320U

If we connect the dots, the smallest of the three Panther Lake SoCs could go on to become the Panther Lake-U variant. Based on existing materials released by Intel, this series is set to feature a 4P+4E core configuration similar to Lunar Lake, with 12MB of shared L3 cache and an Xe3 GPU offering up to four Xe cores. It also supports DDR5 SODIMMs or LPCAMM modules up to 6800 MT/s, as well as soldered LPDDR5X memory running at up to 6400 MT/s.

The mid-size configuration likely corresponds to the Panther Lake-H series, which features a 4P+8E+4LPE core setup, with up to 18MB of shared L3 cache. While it retains the same 4 Xe Core GPU as the smaller variant, the higher core count and larger cache suggest higher performance potential. Additionally, this tier supports DDR5 at speeds up to 7200 MT/s and LPDDR5X at up to 8533 MT/s.

Lastly, the Core Ultra X-branded Panther Lake-H could correspond to the high-end SoC, which features a similar 4P+8E+4LPE CPU core configuration but with a more powerful 12 Xe3 Core GPU for enhanced graphics performance. Notably, this chip has more limited memory options, which aim to deliver adequate memory bandwidth for the GPU. As per Intel, this tier will support LPDDR5X memory at 9600 MT/s.

Intel is expected to officially confirm the final SKUs for Panther Lake later this year, with the first wave of products anticipated to ship before the end of 2025, and a broader availability starting next year. However, the early listings offer an early indication of how the lineup could be structured across performance (H-series) and efficiency (U-series) tiers. Additionally, the mention of previously leaked Core Ultra X models suggest that Intel plans to reserve the “X” branding for its top-tier performance chips.

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Turn it up to 11? This one goes to 12.

How did Toshiba manage to add 20% more platters to the confines of a standard 3.5-inch form factor drive? The answer is, of course, through miniaturization. More specifically, the squishing of platters required “the development of new dedicated parts in the stack, and replacement of the current aluminum substrate medium with a glass substrate that offers greater durability and allows thinner designs.” Furthermore, Toshiba promises “improved mechanical stability and in-plane accuracy, higher density and greater reliability,” with its advanced design.

Safe from HAMR?

Toshiba is going to support the new 12-disk stacking technology devices with its Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) technology for the headlining 40TB HDDs, sometime in 2027. However, it is also investigating devices using next-generation Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology. This could be important, as its MAMR roadmap has been relatively conservative compared to rivals already on the HAMR train.

Some competitors, like Seagate, have roadmaps with 100TB+ HAMR drives (from 2030). WD is also plowing forward with HAMR, but Seagate seems to have leveraged its Invetac acquisition to put it ahead.

In summary, the 12-platter stacking breakthrough is an important engineering milestone for Toshiba. It will help prevent it from trailing too far behind rivals. Beyond capacities, Toshiba’s work is claimed to deliver “greater durability,” and that could also resonate with data center storage buyers and their TCO and reliability-focused decision-making.

More details Friday

Toshiba will be showcasing its new 12-disk stacking technology at the IDEMA Symposium on October 17, 2025, in Kawasaki, Japan. We expect to get some more technical data about its innovation there.

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The new cross-vendor capabilities agreed upon by AMD and Intel are ACE (Advanced Matrix Extension) and AVX10 to enhance the performance of matrix multiplication and vector operations, as well as FRED (Flexible Return and Event Delivery) and ChkTag (x86 Memory Tagging) to reduce latency between software and hardware, as well as to detect errors like buffer overflows or use-after free bugs.

Intel's Granite Rapids processors already support AVX10.1 and AMX, whereas Sapphire Rapids were first to support AMX instructions. With the ratification by the x86 EDA, AVX10 and AMX will be supported by AMD's next-generation processors, though we can only wonder whether this will happen with Zen 6 or already with Zen 7. Other capabilities are less well-known.

Intel introduced FRED publicly in 2023, and by now, the capability is well-documented in developer documentation. The technology is described as a replacement for traditional x86 interrupt and exception mechanisms, so ultimately it is designed to simplify context switches, reduce latency, improve performance, and security when working with operating systems that support it.

FRED speeds up how the CPU switches between user mode (ring 3) and kernel mode (ring 0) with a hardware-defined entry and exit path. While this does not sound too impressive, replacing the old x86 mechanism (which uses the Interrupt Descriptor Table and IRET) is a big deal. At present, every time an application interacts with the OS (which happens millions of times per second), the CPU must switch between user mode and kernel mode, which introduces fairly high latencies with today's machines. Since the traditional IDT and IRET mechanisms are software-managed, while FRED provides a hardware-defined and verified entry and return path, replacing the former with the latter also improves reliability and security, in addition to performance

Up until today, AMD's stance on FRED was unclear, but now that the feature is recognized by the x86 EAG as a cross-vendor capability, it will be added to AMD's platforms over time.

Perhaps the most interesting addition to the list of cross-vendor x86 EAG features is the ChkTag (x86 Memory Tagging) capability, which has not been widely discussed before. The feature is added to catch memory safety errors — problems like buffer overflows, use-after-free, and out-of-bounds memory access — directly in hardware. Memory tagging is rapidly becoming a standard feature in modern CPUs as it is valuable (can catch a variety of bugs in hardware) and easy to implement, which is why modern processors from Apple and Ampere now support Arm's MTE technology.

It is hard to say when AMD and Intel plan to implement ChkTag (x86 Memory Tagging) in their processors. The announcement by the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group signals both are committed to supporting this feature, but there is no obligation to implement it within a certain timeframe. Meanwhile, hardware changes of this depth typically require building them into the CPU microarchitecture itself, so expect support of FRED and ChkTag to come several years down the road.

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The dock is constructed from recycled aluminum with a wooden accent, thereby enhancing its premium appearance. It also incorporates a cooling system that operates in a silent 0dB mode when idle and dynamically adjusts its fan speed based on the graphics card's load. According to the manufacturer, the Humbird 3 is equipped with an ESP32 System on Chip (SoC), a component typically utilized in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and is reportedly powered by the Humbird Operating System (OS) to manage the device's power and performance. The Humbird 3 also features a one-inch LCD screen that displays real-time information, including power consumption, transfer speed, charging status, or a user-defined parameter.

The device utilizes Intel's HL9480 Thunderbolt 5 controller, capable of delivering up to 120 Gbps in single-display mode. The PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot is configured as a x4 connection with a bandwidth of 64 Gbps. The dock is equipped with an integrated 500W GaN power supply and a 16-pin power connector designed to supply power to your graphics card. Users may employ either a standard 16-pin power cable or a 16-pin to 3 x 8-pin power cable, depending on their requirements. Rated at 500W, the system supports graphics cards up to the Radeon 9070 XT or the GeForce RTX 5080.

The Humbird 3 exhibits a comprehensive array of features. Concerning storage, it includes one M.2 slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4; however, the vendor did not specify the supported form factors. Additionally, it incorporates a microSD card reader as well as CFexpress Type A and Type B card readers. In terms of network connectivity, the Humbird 3 is equipped with a single 5G Ethernet port, facilitated by the Realtek RTL8157 controller.

Connectivity includes three Thunderbolt 5 ports that support 100W PD charging. Additionally, the DisplayPort 2.1 output delivers 8K (7680 x 4320) resolution at a refresh rate of up to 60 Hz. The device is also equipped with two standard USB Type-A ports offering 10 Gbps data transfer speeds. Furthermore, wireless charging functionality is available, facilitating the charging of smartphones or smartwatches.

The Humbird 3 is equipped with a standard 180W power adapter. Nonetheless, it is possible to upgrade to a 300W unit for an additional $39 or to a 500W GaN power adapter for an extra $129.

The funding period for the Humbird 3 has concluded. The manufacturer has established an MSRP of $399 for the device. However, Super Early Bird and Early Bird backers are eligible to purchase the device at prices of $299 and $309, respectively. Meanwhile, the vendor is offering a "KS discount" of $80, reducing the device's price to $319.

Shipping fees will add another $20 to $30, depending on your location. The company expects to ship Humbird 3 orders out in November. A limited one-year warranty backs the Humbird 3.

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This latest SOT-MRAM development comes from a cross-institutional collaboration between Taiwan’s National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), leading chip foundry TSMC, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) in Taiwan, Stanford University, and National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) in Taiwan. We’ve covered the same team’s earlier advances in building a SOT-MRAM array chip (Jan 2024) but much progress has been made since then.

Tungsten layer

The key advance presented in the recently published paper is the introduction of a tungsten layer to generate the spin currents. Specifically, the team managed to stabilize the rare beta-phase of Tungsten, which is crucial for increased performance – and will be even more important for eventual mass production of SOT-MRAM devices.

Last year, we noted that NYCU’s SOT-MRAM was capable of latencies up to 10ns. Now it has been improved to ~1ns, rivaling SRAM, reveals testing of a 64kb array the scientists built. For further context, that is slightly faster than DRAM (DDR5 has latency around 14ms) and considerably faster than 3D TLC NAND (which has read latencies between 50 and 100 microseconds).

Don’t forget, though, that this new SOT-MRAM brings the benefits of non-volatility. Other trumpeted advances delivered by the latest SOT-MRAM device demo were:

• Ultrafast switching speeds (as fast as one nanosecond)
• Data retention exceeding 10 years
• A tunneling magnetoresistance of 146%
• Low power consumption, suitable for energy-critical applications

Cobalt too

The research paper reveals that “the insertion of thin layers of cobalt can be used to stabilize β-tungsten under back-end-of-line-compatible thermal conditions.” With the new composite layers, the SOT-MRAM was tested to withstand extreme temperatures (up to 400 °C) for 10 hours, and even 700 °C for 30 mins.

Deliverability and applications

With TSMC scientists among the collaborators, it isn’t surprising to hear that these new SOT-MRAM devices are being designed for large-scale integration under existing semiconductor industry-compatible processes. Almost inevitably, the SOT-MRAM is now being pitched at the AI data center market, as well as low-power computing applications at the edge, where speed and non-volatility will also help spur adoption.

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Originally spotted by Videocardz, our journey starts in Brazil, where a dead RTX 5070 Ti got carbonized in a lightning surge so badly, the shock burnt a literal hole through its PCB. That means a sudden arc flowed across the GPU that was beyond any voltage the card could handle, and in the process, a part of the board ruptured, specifically the top-left corner where the VRMs sit. At this point, any sane person would consider a tax write-off as the best possible course of action for an expensive, dead GPU, but not our host.

See, the core was fine, and even the memory; it was only the power delivery systems that were affected, which implied a way out was possible — all you needed was some (insanely) clever bit of circuitry work. Aided by schematics and a few wires, just bridge together the lost traces, jump a few components, and make sure nothing short-circuits. Easy, right? Wrong.

There were no core voltages in the 5070 Ti, and the card only showed signs of life when it was tricked into supplying current to the PCIe power and memory voltage lanes.

This is where the RX 580 makes its entry. It's a donor board, so it actually doesn't have a GPU, but it does have a working power delivery system with VRMs that can serve as the lifeblood for another card. Thus, we begin the surgery, carefully siphoning power from the RX 580 to the RTX 5070 Ti's main voltage lines: MSVDD and NVDD.

Paulo initially planned to solder 14 power wires between both cards, but then reduced that number down to just six after some experimentation, and also added a 3V line for PEX (logic enable). Lastly, an aftermarket GPU cooler was mounted on the RX 580's PCB — which itself was sitting on top of the 5070 Ti — to keep this incendiary apparatus under control.

It's worth noting that AMD and Nvidia handle power management very differently, so that introduced another layer of challenge (and risk); therefore, the wires connecting the VRMs were shielded heavily to ensure they could handle the heat from the high voltage flowing through the cards.

Following the necessary precautions, which included a fire extinguisher, Paulo also repaired broken video output traces so the card could actually be tested. Once everything was plugged in, our "Brasília" (Frankstein in Portuguese) GPU actually powered on, posts, drawing around ~19W upon startup.

After fiddling around with video drivers, they achieved a stable image, which confirms the experiment worked. They stopped before doing any stress-testing because that would certainly melt the wires, or at least impose some level of serious danger. This is where Paul teases a second part where all warnings are thrown out the window in the name of science — or, in other words, refining the makeshift power delivery system to actually make it stable enough to play games.

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Hardware-wise, you get two PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 sockets, a solid audio solution, fast networking including Wi-Fi 7, capable power delivery, and DIY-friendly design - for the most part, not much different than its peers, save for the two fast M.2 slots. The two-DIMM board supports 128GB of RAM, with speed differences largely irrelevant unless you’re trying to break overclocking records. Asus’ features, including AI Advisor, Overclock, Networking II, and AEMP features, help simplify setup and maximize performance. Additionally, it offers DIY-friendly design, including updated PCIe Slot Release functionality and M.2 slide feature.

Connectivity-wise, there’s not an excess of USB ports on the rear IO, with eight total ports (6x Type-A, 2x Type-C), but that’s about the only real complaint that’s exclusive to this board. Performance was good all around, with average to above-average results across our testing suite. The Strix B850-I Gaming excelled in multithreaded applications and was average in more single-threaded benchmarks. Gaming performance was also solid.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we share test results and discuss details, we’ll list the specifications from Asus’ website.

Specifications of the Asus ROG Strix B850-I Gaming Wifi

Inside the Box of the Asus ROG Strix B850-I Gaming Wifi

Asus includes multiple accessories to help with your building experience. From SATA cables to Wi-Fi antennas, it’s enough to get you going without a trip to the store for the basics. Below is a complete list of the in-box extras.

• (2) SATA 6Gb/s cables
• ASUS WiFi Q-Antenna
• Cable ties package
• M.2 backplate Q-Latch package(s)
• M.2 Q-Slide package
• ROG key chain
• ROG Strix stickers
• M.2 backplate rubber package(s)
• Quick start guide

Design of the B850-I Gaming

Mini-ITX motherboards don’t leave a lot of room for the design team to get creative, but Asus has done a good job on heatsink shape and a placard sporting the Asus ROG branding (that ROG symbol is also perforated to let cool air in to the fan below). The bottom heatsinks (there are two there, you’ll see later) are responsible for the first PCIe M.2 socket and the other for the single PROM 21 chip. Strix is written prominently across the top. All of this sits on a 10-layer, matte-black PCB.

Focusing on the left side, we get a better look at the blue and purple accent design feature / stealthy fan intake on the large heatsink. Hidden below is a small fan to keep the power delivery temperatures in check. It does so, and quietly in our testing using the default settings. Powering the board is a single 8-pin Procool EPS power connector.

Across the top are all four of the board’s 4-pin fan headers. The headers, from left to right, the CPU, AIO, CHA, and Extra Flow (for DRAM or other components, Asus says), all support PWM- and DC-controlled fans/pumps. Output is limited to 1A/12W maximum each, but that’s still enough to power a few fans or an AIO solution in a small Mini-ITX chassis. Next to that are two 3-pin ARGB headers.

Looping back around, hiding under the left heatsink, is the power delivery consisting of 13 total phases. The DIGI+ ASP2205 PWM controller manages power, sending it to the 10 Infineon PMC41420 90A MOSFETs dedicated to vCore. Robust for the form-factor, it’s capable of handling flagship-class processors, even with some overclocking. They ran a bit warm (60 degrees Celsius according to the internal sensor) compared to the larger boards, but were still well within specification and close to the competing ASRock B850I Mini-ITX board.

Just before the edge of the board are the two reinforced DRAM slots with the locking mechanism located at the top. Asus lists support up to DDR5-8400, which is plenty fast for the platform. Asus’ DIMM FIT/DIMM FIT Pro and AEMP features help get the most out of your RAM, even if it doesn’t have an XMP profile. No matter what you put into this machine, Asus can help you get the most out of it.

On the far edge, at the top, is the Q-LED feature that lights up during the POST process. Below that is the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, followed by a front panel USB 2.0 header. Below that are two vertically oriented SATA ports, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) header, and a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps) header. Wrapping up all the pointy parts is a 2-pin temperature sensor header, a CPU Overvolt header, and the front panel header.

Along the bottom edge, we find the single PCIe 5.0 x16 PCIe slot that uses the PCIe Slot-Release to secure and easily remove your graphics card. North of that, working from PCB level up, you have the B850 chip with its own heatsink. In the same vertical space is the first PCIe 5.0 x4 socket, which also has an independent heatsink. The second PCIe 5.0 x4 socket sits on the back and does not have a heatsink. Both sockets support up to 80mm modules and support RAID0/1/10 modes (for 9000 series processors - otherwise it’s RAID 0/1 modes only).

Audio is handled by the modern, mid-range Realtek ALC4080 codec and supplemented by a Savitech SV3H712 amplifier. Connections include line in/out, microphone in, and an SPDIF optical output, along with the front panel header. Most should be satisfied with this configuration.

The rear IO on this board is surprisingly sparse, particularly in terms of USB ports. On the left, you get two USB 2.0 ports, while below that is the Clear CMOS button and an HDMI output for using integrated graphics. To the right is a vent for the VRM, followed by another stack of USB ports, this time featuring four total 10 Gbps Type-A (red) ports and two Type-C ports (10 and 20 Gbps, respectively). Above that is the Intel 2.5 GbE port and the Q-Antenna connectors for Wi-Fi 7. Below the audio stack is the BIOS Flashback button and the multi-function Flexkey. This is typical fare for a Mini-ITX board, but eight USB ports (six Type-A) could be limiting.

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Firmware

Asus’ BIOS on the B850-I Gaming looks like any other ROG board, sporting the black, red, easy-to-read ROG theme we’re all familiar with. Asus starts in an Easy Mode that displays high-level information, including CPU and memory clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, storage information, etc. Advanced Mode has several headers across the top that drop down additional options. The new Q-Dashboard shows all the integrated connectivity. When hardware is connected, there’s a green circle next to it. The BIOS is one of my favorites, as any option you need is there, and anything you need frequently isn’t buried deep within menus.

Software

Armoury Crate on the tiny B850-I Gaming follows the ROG-inspired theme. Several applications exist for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, and overclocking, etc. It's also worth mentioning the included software. When purchasing Asus motherboards, you receive a sixty-day AIDA64 license - a useful application for stress and performance testing. Asus’ Driver Hub (get your updated drivers here!) and a custom version of Hwinfo for real-time monitoring are also helpful applications. We’ve captured a few screenshots of the applications below.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. Thanks to Asus for providing the RTX 4080 TUF graphics card and Crucial for the 2TB T705 SSDs. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
• RAM - Teamgroup T-Froce Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)
• RAM - Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)
• NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, and these settings can impact some testing.

The ROG Strix B850i did well across our synthetic benchmarks, often running faster than the average. We saw nothing out of the ordinary here.

Timed Applications

It was the same story for the timed application:.a lot of average to slightly above average results, depending on the test.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of a more popular and visually appealing game. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Our gaming tests confirm that the ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi’s excellent performance, and not only for office and productivity tasks. While its 3DMark scores weren't outstanding, its true value was demonstrated in actual gameplay, which we consider more critical.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all of the above, we’re not overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Memory testing went without any significant surprises. The ROG Strix B850-I did boot with our Klevv DDR5-8000 kit; however, it wouldn’t pass the stress test. So we tossed in our trusty Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit, fired it up, and the board passed testing without any tweaks. It’s AMD, so you’re mostly want to stick to the the 6000-6400 MT/s range for gaming.

If manual tweaking of your processor isn’t your thing, Asus’ AI Overclocking intelligently predicts the optimal configuration after analyzing the CPU and cooling quality, pushing your system to its limits.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have transitioned to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

The power consumption of the Ryzen 9 9990X is relatively low compared to the 7950X used for X670/X670E. In the past, high-end boards peaked at nearly 300W, but current systems now reach a maximum of 250- 270W during CPU stress tests (gaming with the Nvidia RTX 4080 versus the RTX 3070 is a different matter). That said, the ROG Strix B850-I Gaming peaked at 240W under load, with the CPU consuming around 150W. The idle power consumption for this board was among the better results at 72W. Overall, it’s a pretty efficient board.

The Asus Mini-ITX board exhibited the warmest VRM temperatures in our tests, reaching approximately 54 degrees Celsius on our sensors and over 60 degrees Celsius according to Hwinfo and its internal sensor. Despite this, the temperatures remain within specifications. In the end, we have no concerns about the board’s power delivery, even when paired with a CPU like the Ryzen 9 9950X. Optimal airflow is recommended to maintain cooler temperatures.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Strix B850-I Gaming proved to be a capable Mini-ITX board. While its hardware, apart from the dual PCIe 5.0 x4 sockets, doesn't significantly differentiate it from other B850-based Mini-ITX boards, its software suite, AI and DIY features, and overall performance set it apart. However, its limited USB connectivity might be a drawback, pushing some buyers to consider the X870-I Gaming, which comes at a substantial premium ($489.99) for minimal additional benefit.

Among B850 Mini-ITX SKUs, the ROG Strix B850-I Gaming is the most expensive. In contrast, the ASRock B850I Lighting Wifi is more budget-friendly ($259.99), with the MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti Wifi ($284.99) and Gigabyte B850I Aorus Pro ($301.99) falling in the mid-range. The decision of which to choose largely hinges on whether you need two PCIe 5.0 x4 sockets for NVMe and intend to use the other features Asus offers. But if M.2 bandwidth isn't a priority, other, less expensive options are hard to pass up. Nevertheless, the Asus ROG Strix B850-I Gaming is a strong contender and, if within budget, is arguably the most well-rounded Mini-ITX solution.

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